


The Shadow Ends: Part II

by MysticalOyster



Series: The Shadow Ends [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Bloodline - Claudia Gray
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Armitage Hux Has Feelings, Bottom Armitage Hux, Bottom Kylo Ren, Developing Relationship, Enemies to Lovers, Eventual Smut, First Order Politics (Star Wars), Fluff and Angst, Force Bond (Star Wars), Force Healing, Inappropriate Use of the Force, Jedi Rey (Star Wars), Kylo Ren Needs a Hug, Kylo Ren Redemption, Kylux - Freeform, M/M, Original Character(s), POV Alternating, Porn, Porn With Plot, Porn with Feelings, Post-Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Slow Burn, Smut, Stormpilot, The Force, Top Armitage Hux, Top Kylo Ren
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:53:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 66
Words: 66,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21857143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MysticalOyster/pseuds/MysticalOyster
Summary: Kylo Ren makes a choice that redefines Hux’s destiny as well as his own. Finding answers in an unexpected place, Rey discovers her true strength. As the First Order’s dominion grows, the Resistance leads the fight for the fate of the galaxy. New alliances are forged in the face of a growing evil that threatens the essence of the Force itself.
Relationships: Armitage Hux & Leia Organa, Armitage Hux & Rey, Armitage Hux & Snoke, Armitage Hux/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Armitage Hux/Kylo Ren, Finn & Armitage Hux, Knights of Ren & Kylo Ren, Leia Organa & Ben Solo, Luke Skywalker & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Poe Dameron & Armitage Hux, Poe Dameron & Finn & Kylo Ren & Rey, Poe Dameron/Finn, Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey & Luke Skywalker, Snoke & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: The Shadow Ends [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1545595
Comments: 60
Kudos: 155





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to Part II! We are so excited to finally be sharing this. If you haven't already read Part I, you’ll [want to do that first](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21438007/chapters/51083128) before you start here. 
> 
> Also, for our own sakes, we’d like it on record that this fic is fully written and in the final editing stages as we update. So whatever happens in Rise of Skywalker (which we are not seeing until we have completely posted)…ours was here first.
> 
> Thank you all so much, and we hope you enjoy! - Z & L

Out of the heavy darkness, a vicious, piercing cold.  
Hux’s chest felt tight, nearly too tight to breathe. An insidious chill seemed to seep into his bones. He gasped, desperately filling his lungs.  
The cold ceased, leaving a fierce ache behind it. It took several tries to open his eyes. When he finally did, he found himself looking into Ren’s face.  
Ren’s trembling hand fell gently onto Hux’s chest. “You’re awake,” Ren said, relief softening his pinched expression. “I think I’ve gotten the worst healed while you were unconscious.”  
Hux started to sit up, wincing as a sharp pain shot across his ribcage. He was shivering uncontrollably. The cold sensation of Ren’s healing had been so severe that Hux still felt frozen to the core.   
Blearily, he turned and looked over his surroundings. He was lying on a small bunk in a cramped room. Ren knelt at the side of the cot and the wall behind him was emblazoned with a First Order seal. This, Hux realized numbly, was an escape shuttle.  
“Hux?” Ren’s voice was hesitant. “I can stop healing you for now if it’s too much, but I don’t want to leave it like this—”  
“What have you done?” Hux breathed.   
Ren faltered. “We’ve been in hyperspace for a few hours. The ship is on a course for Batna, in the Outer Rim. There’s an outpost there, Hounslow, where we can—”   
“Ren,” Hux cut him off sharply. “Why am I here?”  
“I had to get us away from Snoke,” Ren said, swallowing thickly. “Communications were still down on the _Finalizer_. It was the best chance we had to disappear.”  
“You were supposed to kill me.”  
Ren fell silent. Hux stared at him, unrelentingly waiting for an answer. Finally, he said in a small voice, “I couldn’t.”  
A wave of dizzying rage overwhelmed Hux. “Do you understand what you’ve done? You’ve betrayed Snoke. You’ve made us into fugitives from the First Order—”   
Hux broke off abruptly, his breath catching in his throat as the weight of his own words struck him. The First Order, all Hux had ever known, was lost to him. Everything he’d worked his whole life to build—gone in an instant.   
“We have some time before Snoke will try to find us,” Ren said quietly. “We’ll find a new ship at Hounslow Outpost, one that’s not traceable by the First Order.”  
“Do you genuinely think you can outrun the fleet?” Hux hissed. Ignoring Ren’s protests, he pushed himself upright, and the pain that wracked through him only fueled his anger. “I’ve known all along that you were a callow fool, but this is far worse than any fate Snoke could have prepared for me.”   
Slowly, Ren said, “I saved your life.”   
“You’ve saved your own conscience,” Hux said bitterly, a tremor rising in his voice.  
Anger flickered in Ren’s expression. “The alternative was to kill you. Or worse, let Snoke torture you to death. Is that really what you wanted?”  
Hux regarded him coldly. “Leave me, Ren,” he said.   
Ren drew back. “You still need healing,” he began. “Let me—”   
_“Get out.”_  
For a moment, Ren looked as if he wanted to say something more, but he shrank beneath Hux’s hateful glare. He stood and stepped out of the small quarters, leaving Hux in silence.   
  
  
  


***  
  
  
  


The ship dropped out of hyperspace with a sudden jolt and a shudder. Unacclimated to the motion of such a small craft, Hux braced a hand against the wall until the ship stabilized.   
He went out into the corridor. Narrow, vent-like windows lined the hall at eye level. Through them, Hux could make out the rapidly approaching terrain of a planet: Batna.  
He found Ren at the front of the shuttle, his eyes on the controls as he guided the craft to the surface. As they touched down, a haze of blue-white dust obscured the bridge window. When it cleared, the view was not much different—just a vast expanse of pale blue, streaked occasionally with darker mineral veins beneath the ground. Everything outside the reach of the ship’s floodlights was washed in silver light from a moon hanging above the horizon.  
The moment the ship had settled, Ren was out of his seat, brushing past Hux towards the cargo hold. He reappeared a moment later with a slim, dark gray case, which he set on the main navigational panel. He pressed a release and the case opened with a muted pop, revealing a row of smooth black orbs.  
“Those charges aren’t powerful enough to detonate a craft like this,” Hux said, cautiously.  
Ren ignored him. He knelt underneath the nav panel, ran his fingers along its upper edge, clicked a latch, and let the metal housing fall away.   
Hux heard wires snap, then saw Ren irreverently drop a hunk of metal to the ground beside him. He straightened up, grabbed a charge from the case, and then once again ducked out of sight underneath the nav panel.  
He repeated the process several times over—tear, rewire, set charge—on different consoles on the bridge. He never paused more than a moment, his hands working efficiently as a frown of concentration knit his brows together.  
Once he’d finished, he gave the bridge a final once-over and turned to Hux. After a moment of consideration, Ren said, “Leave the coat.”  
“What?”  
“Your coat. It has the First Order emblem. You’ll be recognized.”  
Hux hesitated, then slipped his coat off and draped it over the copilot’s seat.   
Ren met his eyes. “Ready?”   
Hux gave a short nod.  
Ren pocketed the detonator from the metal case and led Hux from the shuttle’s gangway to Batna’s chalky surface. They crossed a short distance before Ren stopped and turned back towards the ship. Hux mirrored him.  
Ren withdrew the detonator and pressed the indentation on its surface. The charges exploded, violently wracking the frame of the ship but leaving it largely intact. A half second later Ren’s makeshift rig took effect; there was a second, far more impressive explosion, blowing out the ship’s windows and then engulfing it in a plume of flame that must have been visible for miles around, had there been anyone to see it.  
They stood watching the remnants of the shuttle burn. Hux felt a sudden upwelling of panic but he swallowed it back, refusing for the moment to acknowledge all that the smoking wreckage of the First Order ship signified. When the flames had died down to a smolder, there was almost nothing left but a ring of shrapnel and a few metal girders melting into the liquefied mineral surface of the flats.  
Hux glanced at Ren and found that his expression was level and surprisingly calm. Ren turned and met Hux’s eyes briefly before his gaze slid to the eastern horizon.   
“Hounslow Outpost is that way,” Ren said, nodding towards it. “We should arrive before sunrise.”  
Hux did not reply, but when Ren turned his back on the ship and started to walk, Hux followed him without protest.  
  
  
  


***  
  
  
  


Hounslow Outpost first appeared as a monolithic slab of gray. As they neared, it resolved into a hulking gate, flanked on either side by watchtowers. Several more towers extended around the perimeter of the settlement, readily visible as the only markers of distance on an otherwise featureless landscape.   
The gate was guarded by a number of tall, scaled creatures, bipedal but more reptilian than humanoid. Hux guessed they were planet natives.   
With a slight lift of his hand, Ren signaled for Hux to drop back. Hux complied, watching from several paces behind as Ren approached the nearest guard.  
The Batnasi asked a question in a rough, sibilant language, its tongue flickering out intermittently as it spoke. Ren shook his head and said, “Basic.”  
“What is your purpose here?” the guard said, a strange hissing sound contorting its words.  
“Trade,” Ren said flatly.  
“You have no goods.”  
Ren answered in a murmur, too low for Hux to hear. The guard looked over Ren’s shoulder towards Hux, its round yellow eyes sweeping over him.   
Suddenly, Ren’s voice was sharp in Hux’s mind: _Do not meet his gaze._  
After a moment’s hesitation, he dropped his eyes to the ground.  
He felt the guard’s attention leave him and return to Ren. “A name is required for entry.”  
There was a brief pause before Ren answered, “Abalin.”  
Glancing up from the tops of his eyes, Hux saw the guard step aside. It gestured to someone in the watchtower above, and the stone slabs in front of them began to move.   
The gate swung open to reveal the bazaar and, beyond it, an open expanse of land dotted with ships. Ren beckoned Hux forward and together they walked into the walled city.  
Once they were out of earshot of the gate, Ren shrugged off his cloak and handed it to Hux. “Put this on. You stand out too much.”  
Hux took it, quirking an eyebrow. “And you’re not concerned about showing your face here?”  
“No one knows my face,“ Ren answered, “but someone will definitely know yours.”  
Hux pulled the long black cloak over his shoulders, letting the hood draw over the top of his vision. As they continued, Hux asked in a low voice, “The name you gave. What was it?”  
Ren cast him a brief, uncomfortable glance. “Abalin. My middle name,” he said. “It will be safer if you call me that from now on.”  
He considered this for a moment, tipping his head to one side. “Very well, Abalin,” he said.  
Hux saw a slight blush rise in his face, although Hux wasn’t sure if it was because he was pleased or embarrassed.  
Moving in long, unbroken strides, Abalin led them into the heart of the bazaar.


	2. Chapter 2

Although the sky was just beginning to lighten, the market was already crowded, the air thick with voices speaking a dozen different languages. Ancient-looking filament lights dangled from awnings above the merchant stalls, ranging from crude shacks of chalky white clay to booths that were little more than wooden stakes and tattered canvas roofs.   
“The shipyard will have unregistered vessels. The owner tends to pry, so don’t speak and don’t look at him,” Abalin said. “Even if he addresses you.”  
Hux stepped past a small furred creature engaged in heated debate with a Batnasi hawker. He had to make an effort to stay near Abalin, who moved through the crowd without pause. “And how exactly do you intend to purchase a ship?”  
“Just stay behind me and keep silent,” Abalin responded, unfazed.  
Hux had never been here, nor anywhere quite like it, but Abalin seemed unexpectedly in his element as he negotiated the motley crowds. The shops thinned out and then ended abruptly at the edge of an open tract of land. It was the shipyard they had seen from the gate, set on a low plateau above the bazaar.  
Their steps kicked up a trail of fine white dust in their wake. Compared to the press of the marketplace, Hux felt distinctly exposed as they crossed the yard. They neared a small service station and Hux fell back a few steps, allowing Abalin to draw up to the hut alone.   
The owner of the yard watched them approach with a cold, calculating gaze. “I am Bungasha,” the Batnasi said by way of greeting. “What do you want?”  
“The Convor jumpship,” Abalin said.  
Bungasha’s tongue flickered. “A skimmer, eh?” he rasped. “Running from something?” His probing eyes narrowed on Hux.   
Heeding Abalin’s warning, Hux turned away.  
Abalin’s voice was curbed. “Name your price.”  
For several tense moments, Bungasha’s eyes remained on Hux before he finally relented. “Ten thousand credits.”  
Abalin set his shoulders. Hux became aware of a deep, uncharacteristic calm emanating from Abalin’s mind.  
“You will give me the access core to the ship,” he said smoothly, with a subtle wave of his hand.  
A split second passed with no reaction. Then Hux saw Bungasha’s eyes go blank, the black slit of his pupils suddenly narrowing needle-thin. His spine straightened and he stared ahead, seemingly without seeing Abalin at all.   
“I will give you the access core to the ship,” Bungasha echoed tonelessly. He reached beneath the counter with the same fixed, empty expression on his face. Then, trance-like, he set a rusted cylinder on the counter between them.  
Abalin kept his eyes on Bungasha until his hand closed around the cylinder, then turned to Hux. “Go,” he said. “Quickly.”  
He took Hux by the elbow, moving first at a rapid walk and then breaking into a run. Hux didn’t know what they were running towards, exactly, but the momentary calm had vanished from Abalin’s mind so he didn’t stop to ask.  
They were closing in on an outmoded jumpship that Hux presumed to be their target. Before they reached it, they were intercepted by another Batnasi, this one armed with a blaster.  
Hux made to continue in the direction of the ship but Abalin flung his arm across Hux’s chest, stopping him in his tracks. Abalin’s other arm was thrown outward towards their pursuer.  
The guard’s enraged yells died suddenly in his throat. He was frozen in place, his blaster three-quarters raised towards them.  
In a slow, deliberate motion, Abalin’s fingers flexed outward. A desperate choking sound escaped the guard’s mouth. The air around them seemed to thrum and vibrate as palpable waves of energy rolled from Abalin’s outstretched hand. Even from where he stood, Hux could see the terror in the guard’s eyes.  
Abalin’s hand closed decisively into a fist. There was the sound of bone snapping, and the guard’s eyes rolled back into his skull. The blaster clattered to the ground as the Batnasi crumpled into a lifeless heap.  
Hux stared blankly at the dead guard until Abalin grabbed his forearm and pulled him, stumbling, the remaining distance to the ship. At their approach, there was a low hiss of steam and a ramp descended from the ship’s entryway to the ground. Hux heard more shouts drawing near as he and Abalin climbed into the ship.  
As soon as they were onboard, the ramp was lifting from the ground and the entry starting to seal. Abalin threw himself into the pilot’s seat. “Launching,” he said, his hands moving deftly over the control panels.   
A group of guards and shopkeepers from the bazaar had gathered, some of them clustered around the dead Batnasi and the rest screaming up at the ship, their mouths moving silently as they shrank away below.   
The next moment, Batna was replaced by the blue rush of hyperspace.


	3. Chapter 3

Abalin stood from the control panel and went to find Hux. He only made it a few steps before a wave of dizziness swept over him. He caught himself on a pillar, clenching his eyes shut and fighting the exhaustion that persistently crept into the corners of his vision. When he could open his eyes, he found Hux staring at him.   
“Monitor the ship,” Abalin said, straightening up slowly.  
Hux frowned. “Is something wrong?”  
Abalin shook his head. “I need to meditate. I might be able to find a place where we can rest if I search the Force.”   
“What are you talking about?” Hux asked waspishly. “How could the Force show you a place to hide?”  
“Please.”  
Hux’s eyes flashed. Without answering, he pivoted on his heel and went to the forward bridge.   
Abalin made his way to the crew quarters of the ship. The hyperdrive and ion thrusters were nearly unbearably loud in this area, muffled only by a few layers of rusted steel. He dropped into a cross-legged position on the floor, closed his eyes and took deep, even breaths. Gradually, he deafened himself to the roar of the engines behind the walls, the incessant chirping and beeping of the ship’s computing systems. Time seemed to slow as Abalin sunk deeper into his meditation. Finally, all was silent except the beating of his heart and the low, ever-present murmuring of the Force.  
Finding a safe haven from the Order would not be easy, but he had an idea of where to start.  
  
  
  


***  
  
  
  


For years, Snoke had indoctrinated the idea that the Light within Abalin was weakness. It had tormented him for years, tempting him with the promise of a life he could not have: free of pain, free of Snoke. Each time Abalin had felt it tear him in half, Snoke had sensed his conflict and punished it until the Light was crushed and broken.   
And yet, time and time again, it had always returned.   
Now, when he reached for the Light, it answered his call so easily that Abalin recoiled from it. It surrounded him all too quickly, blinding him as it seared his mind from within.   
_Breathe,_ he told himself, remembering his training from a time before Snoke. _Calm. Focus. Balance.  
_When Abalin opened himself to the Light again, it was softer. Almost hesitant. It flickered at the edge of Abalin’s mind, as if it shared his apprehension. There was only warmth now, painless and comforting. It was so different than the tumultuous energies of the Dark Side, but no less powerful.   
Abalin was so close to finding what he was looking for. There was just one last step.   
In the moments when the Light pulled at him most strongly, his thoughts had gone to his family. He thought of his mother. Her curled brown hair, her gentle smile. He remembered the warmth in her voice as she told him she loved him and that she would miss him, as well as the sadness in her eyes as they parted for the last time on the day she sent him away to train with Luke.   
Grief shot through him suddenly, cold and sharp as a knife driven through his chest. The Light wavered and Abalin felt himself start to slip into a familiar blackness.  
No. He couldn’t lose himself. Not when he was this close.   
Abalin had to change his approach. He tried to think of something else—something that was not of his past.  
Hux.  
He thought of the breathless rush of seeing Hux again after three months apart. He remembered the nights that Hux allowed Abalin to stay, the sound of Hux’s even breathing through the nights that Abalin could not find sleep.   
The calm in Hux’s mind as he silently told Abalin that he was not afraid to die. Hux had felt no pain, no anger. Simply…peace.  
Abalin stilled. The whispers of the Force fell silent.  
Leia was before him.   
His breath was shallow and his hand shook as it neared Leia’s face. His fingertips hovered just above her forehead. He drew upon as much of the Light as his strength allowed. He felt Leia’s warmth and grace, her fierce courage and devotion, the heartbeat of the Force within herself.   
Something shifted behind him. He turned and searched the invisible horizon, sensing movement in the distance.  
_Ben?  
_Abalin whirled around. His breath left him as he met his mother’s eyes. She stared at him, her mouth falling open in surprise.  
_This is strange_ , she said, stretching her hand towards him. _You’re always a little boy in my dreams.  
_Abalin’s heart was racing. _Mother, this isn’t a dream. I don’t have much time. I—  
_He turned again as a sudden prickle of fear washed over him. The silence had become a dull, muted roar without Abalin even realizing what he was hearing. Abalin’s grasp on the Light—on Leia—was slipping. Whatever was approaching, he would not be able to fend it off.   
He could not let it get to her.  
He reached for her and, without hesitation, she grasped his hands in hers. Abalin pushed rapid images from his memories into her mind: the escape through the battle in the Naydra asteroids, the white plains of Hounslow Outpost, the rusted exterior of the stolen Batnasi jumpship.  
_Please,_ he said as her image began to fade. _Find me._  
He released her and plunged back through the depths of the Force. A violent, howling wind seemed to tear after him. It drew nearer with every passing second, closing the distance between them as he struggled to evade it. He was nearly back now—to Hux, to the jumpship, to the confines of his own body.   
With a sharp gasp, Abalin returned to himself. His eyes flew open as he scrambled to reorient himself in the tiny crew quarters. The sound of whatever was chasing him had vanished, leaving only the steady rumble of the engines and the pounding of his heart. 


	4. Chapter 4

Snoke was slow to speak as he gazed down at the three Ren gathered in front of him. Irizar, with Ghodous and Vaelys on either side of him, waited in silence. It was rare for Snoke to call them all to the _Finalizer_ , and the summons was the first word he’d had from Snoke since the Order’s disastrous encounter with the New Republic at the Belt of Naydra.  
“Kylo Ren,” Snoke rasped, his voice dangerous and low as it rolled through the Holochamber, “has betrayed his oath. He has abandoned his allegiance to the Knights of Ren and forsaken the First Order.”  
Irizar was the first to react, unable to contain his derision. “Ben Solo’s blood is of traitors and cowards,” he spat. “He was destined to crawl back to them.”  
Snoke turned towards Irizar. “And who was tasked with breaking him of his bonds to those traitors and cowards? Who trained him when he first joined the Knights of Ren?” he snarled. “His betrayal is also your failure, Irizar. Do not speak of him again unless it will bring us closer to finding him.” Snoke’s gaze trailed over the other two Ren. “That is why I have called you here. All of you will help me ensure that Kylo pays for his treachery with his life.”   
“Did he leave alone?” Ghodous asked.  
Snoke regarded him coldly. “He fled with General Hux.”  
“Master Kylo may go to seek Rey,” Vaelys said, tilting her head slowly to meet Snoke’s eyes. “I sense the Force connects them strongly, even still.”  
“Could he have sought refuge with the Resistance?” Ghodous offered.   
“I am not certain,” said Snoke. “But I have felt him searching the Force. He grows more desperate as his strength wanes. He cannot conceal himself for much longer.”  
“Where do we begin our search?” asked Vaelys.  
When Irizar spoke again, it was with a sullen edge in his voice. “Kylo must have known that a shuttle marked by the First Order would be easily traced.” He kept his eyes fixed on Snoke, a slight curl in his lip. “He will have secured an unregistered ship by now. He would have needed to go to one of the outposts at the Outer Rim. Somewhere the general would not have been easily recognized.”  
“Loera Outpost and Hounslow Outpost are not far from the Belt of Naydra,” Ghodous said, his gaze flickering between Irizar and Snoke. “We may be able to track them if we search the memories of those who might have encountered them.”   
A thin smile twisted Snoke’s face. “Excellent,” he hissed. “Vaelys and Ghodous, you will go to Loera. Irizar, to Hounslow. Capture Kylo Ren at any cost.” Snoke’s voice fell to a deep rumble. “Bring him to me and he will know retribution.”  
“And what of the general?” asked Ghodous.  
Snoke’s eyes narrowed. “Destroy him.”


	5. Chapter 5

Hux peered through the front window of the shuttle. “Where are we?”   
“Persei,” Abalin answered. “Second world in the Omicron system. It’s mostly uninhabited, so we won’t be noticed.”  
Abalin stood from the controls as the ship began to power down. He unlatched the door and let it swing open. A cold wind billowed into the ship, carrying the scent of damp soil. Abalin stepped outside and Hux followed.   
The jumpship rested on a broad plateau, and a stiff breeze made rippling waves in the tall grasses. In front of them, a steep canyon plunged sharply downward. On the far side of the canyon, gray mountains rose from the horizon.  
Hux glanced away from the stark landscape to Abalin. “Why have we come here?”   
“We can hide for now,” Abalin said.  
Hux rounded on him. “What do you mean?”   
“I needed somewhere to rest. This is just temporary.”  
“Temporary,” Hux repeated. “Until what, exactly?”  
“Until…” Abalin trailed off and shook his head. “Until we have somewhere else to go,” he managed quietly.  
“Somewhere else like this, you mean. Some other worthless, forgotten planet.”  
Abalin shifted uneasily, his gaze slipping towards the mountains on the horizon as if eager to look anywhere but Hux.  
“So this is the end of your plan?” Hux said, his throat tightening. “To live out the rest of our existence as fugitives, destined to travel from one barren world to the next in scrap metal ships until we are run down by the First Order?”   
Abalin said nothing.  
“Abalin,” Hux barked. “Tell me you don’t intend to leave us out here. Tell me you have somewhere for us to go. An idea, at least. Anything.”  
He gave no answer. His eyes flickered up to Hux’s and then away again.   
The silence dragged on while Hux stared at Abalin, a pounding roar building slowly in his ears. Every second of Abalin’s mute uncertainty made Hux more furious, until he couldn’t stand to look at the nervous, wide-eyed expression on his face for another instant. Hux grabbed Abalin’s collar in both fists and shoved him backwards. Abalin’s face twitched as his back slammed into the side of the ship, but he made no move to pull away.  
“You think you’ve spared me,” Hux spat, “but all you’ve done is taken everything from me. You could have let me die with honor. With purpose.”  
Abalin closed his eyes. “I’m sorry.”  
Hux released his hold on Abalin’s collar. “If you had any sense of decency, you would kill me now.”  
Abalin didn’t answer.  
Hux’s knuckles cracked against Abalin’s cheekbone, and Abalin slumped against the ship. “You were too weak to do it on Snoke’s order. Here is your chance to try again.”  
“No,” Abalin said softly.  
Hux struck him again, this time at the corner of Abalin’s mouth. Blood began to spill from his lip. “Have you already forgotten how to be Kylo Ren? Or has that always been a facade?”  
When Abalin again failed to answer, Hux threw his fist against Abalin’s temple. Abalin stumbled to the ground, catching himself on his hands and knees. “Even if it was, you could have kept it up until I was dead,” Hux said, his voice breaking slightly.  
Abalin did not move. Shaking, Hux stepped around him and climbed back into the ship. 


	6. Chapter 6

Abalin entered the ship quietly once night fell, careful to avoid disturbing Hux in case he was asleep. The winds had picked up as daylight faded, bringing the taste of distant rain. Each gust rattled the jumpship as Abalin settled down in the forward bridge to meditate, hoping to recover some of his strength.  
As he slipped into his meditation, he sensed something had changed. Besides the gentle swells of Force energy he was accustomed to, there was a new, sinister presence, one that he didn’t immediately recognize. It wasn’t Snoke, but something similar. The presence was searching, drawing closer. Hunting.   
Abalin gasped as he broke from his meditation. He shot to his feet and crossed to the jumpship’s controls, bringing up the radar scanner. At its center was Persei, a solid dot amid smaller, fainter lights indicating moons. Another dot appeared at the edge of the scanner, steadily blinking out and then reappearing a little closer to Persei each time. A ship.   
“Abalin?” Hux appeared in the doorway of the bridge, his brows pulled together. “What is it?”  
“He’s found us,” Abalin breathed.  
“Snoke?”  
“No.” Abalin swept past Hux to retrieve his lightsaber. “Stay inside the ship. I will try to fend him off, but be prepared to launch—”  
“What?” Hux caught Abalin’s shoulder, holding him in place. “Who is coming?”  
Abalin could not keep the fear from his voice. “Irizar.”  
  
  
  


***  
  
  
  


Rain had begun to fall. Crosswinds from the headlands of the plateau and upward from the canyon buffeted Abalin as he waited. Hux was in the jumpship, and Abalin had primed the launch sequence in case Abalin failed. The Batnasi jumpship couldn’t outgun Irizar’s shuttle, but Abalin hoped he would be able to distract Irizar long enough to give Hux a head start. Alone, Hux might have a chance to escape.  
Irizar’s shuttle appeared, nearly invisible against the dark sky, and landed a short distance away. Abalin faced it with the hilt of his lightsaber clenched at his side. The causeway lowered, and Irizar strode out.   
His gaze on Abalin was even as he approached. “Master Kylo,” he greeted, mockingly cordial. “Strange to find you on such a distant world as this.”  
Thunder rumbled in the skies above them. Abalin said nothing.   
“The guard on Batna seemed to know you as Abalin. So quick to abandon the name you were given by the Ren. So quick to abandon those who made you strong.”   
“You shouldn’t have come after me.”  
Abalin watched warily as Irizar stopped within a few steps of him. “Snoke has tasked me with retrieving you so that he may exact his revenge,” Irizar said.   
“I am never going back,” Abalin snarled, his hand tightening on his hilt.   
Irizar gave a venomous smile. “Just as well, Master Kylo. Unfortunately for the Supreme Leader, I’m not particularly interested in bringing you back alive.” Irizar’s hand went to his waist and withdrew a black hilt. A dark red blade burst from it, hissing in the rain. “Instead, I intend to bring your saber to Snoke, slick with your blood.”  
Abalin ignited his own saber and held it across his chest. He drew a deep breath, then lunged forward.  
Black thunderheads rolled in above them, bringing pelting rain that turned the earth to mud beneath their feet. Irizar struck relentlessly, and Abalin parried each attack. Their blades sparked violently against each other. Abalin ducked below Irizar’s saber and slashed at his torso, but Irizar jerked backwards out of reach. Abalin fell back to a defensive stance, bracing for Irizar’s next lunge.   
Irizar laughed, the sound muted by the din of the storm. “You can’t keep up this dance forever.”  
He charged Abalin with renewed energy. Abalin narrowly blocked him, losing ground as Irizar pushed him back towards the cliff’s edge. Irizar raised his saber over his head and swung it down so viciously that Abalin felt pain ricochet through his arm. He fell back another step, and Irizar swung harshly down once more. As their sabers met, Abalin lost his footing in the mud. The blade of Irizar’s lightsaber cut open a gash on Abalin’s thigh, and with a cry of pain he dropped to one knee. Before he could recover, Irizar struck the lightsaber from Abalin’s hand. It extinguished as it hit the ground and was instantly lost in the sheets of rain.  
Irizar thrust his hand forward and Abalin suddenly found himself locked in place. Panic bolted through him as he realized that he couldn’t get himself free. Irizar kicked him onto his back, and a muffled shout left Abalin as he felt the void of the cliff beneath his head. The tip of Irizar’s saber hovered at Abalin’s throat. He stared up at Irizar, realizing he had no strength left to fight.   
“Master Kylo,” Irizar crooned. “Young Ben. Know that killing you shall be my greatest satisfaction.”   
Abalin held Irizar’s eyes, drawing short breaths. He stilled the fear in his mind as best he could and said, _Hux, go.  
_ Irizar drew back his lightsaber, and Abalin’s vision flashed white. Irizar staggered, clutching his face. Released from Irizar’s hold, Abalin rolled away and called his lightsaber to his hand. Dazed, Abalin dragged himself to his feet and looked back to the jumpship.   
Hux stood there, blaster trained on Irizar with a trail of smoke wisping from the barrel.   
Irizar removed his hand. One eye was obscured by the sluice of blood pouring from his forehead, and the other was fixed on Hux. “You,” he snarled. “Pathetic _wretch—_ ”  
Before he could advance on Hux, Abalin dove forward and swept his saber up in a quick diagonal slash towards Irizar. He dodged and stumbled, struggling to find his balance in the mud. Abalin scrambled backwards as the earth at the edge of the canyon started to shift. The ground, weakened by the torrential rain, gave way under Irizar’s feet, and he barely had time to scream as he vanished over the cliff’s edge.


	7. Chapter 7

Abalin felt a touch on his shoulder. He spun and found Hux beside him.   
“You’re wounded,” Hux said quietly.  
Abalin couldn’t answer at first, fighting to recover his breath. “I’m fine,” he managed. “Good shot.”  
Hux looked over the cliff. “Could he have survived that?”  
Abalin didn’t answer. Dizziness surged through him and he struggled to suppress it. Hux caught his shoulder as he swayed.  
Then, faintly, Abalin heard the sound of ships in the distance.   
Hux turned, his head following the movement of a shuttle as it appeared over the horizon. A moment later, a blinding flash of lightning fractured the sky, revealing the silhouette of two X-wings just behind the shuttle.  
“Resistance,” Hux said grimly. “They’re coming for us.” Hux recharged his blaster as he watched them approach. “You’ve done enough. Return to the ship and I’ll cover you.”  
The ships stopped overhead, their engines whipping the rain into mist as they lowered to the ground. Before Abalin could say anything, the shuttle opened its doors. A stream of people filed out, armed with blaster rifles.   
_Hux, don’t_ , Abalin pleaded, but Hux ignored him. He lifted his blaster, aiming at the approaching Resistance.  
“Weapon!” The soldiers fell into position and trained their own blasters on Hux.  
Abalin knocked the blaster from Hux’s hand, sending it to the ground. In an instant, they were surrounded. Abalin didn’t fight as his arms were pinned behind him, but Hux struggled until the muzzle of a rifle touched the back of his head.   
A man stepped up to inspect both of them. His features were blurred by the pouring rain, but Abalin saw his eyes go wide as he caught sight of Hux.  
“Holy shit,” he said numbly. “You’re supposed to be dead.”  
Hux’s mouth curled into a vicious sneer. “Poe Dameron,” he hissed. “The famed pilot of the Resistance.”  
Dameron. Abalin remembered the name. The pilot with the map to Luke Skywalker. It seemed like an eternity had passed since then. Poe glanced towards him and Abalin quickly ducked his head. Abalin had been masked during all of their interactions while Poe was a prisoner of the Order, but Abalin could not risk being recognized.  
“We were following a distress beacon coming from that ship.” Poe nodded at the Batnasi jumper. “So I’m a little confused as to why I’m finding the general of the First Order here, especially since the New Republic has been celebrating your death ever since the Battle of Naydra.”  
“They should be so fortunate,” Hux retorted.  
“Why are you here?”  
“I sent the beacon,” Abalin broke in. Briefly, he met Poe’s gaze. “NEB-342. That’s the signal you were following. Right?”  
Poe’s brows knit together as he scrutinized Abalin. “So you’re the one we’re here for. How do you know General Organa’s personal code?”  
“I need to speak to her. Urgently.”  
“You traitor,” Hux snarled.  
Abalin flinched. He turned to look at Hux and found his expression full of loathing.  
“All this time,” Hux went on. “This has been your plan all along—”  
_Hux, please. You don’t understand. I can explain.  
_ “You’ve just been biding your time, waiting for your chance to take me away from the First Order so you could return as a hero—”  
In a surge of desperation, he focused what remained of his energy on preventing Hux from saying another word. Hux tried to continue speaking, but his voice was caught in his throat.   
He seemed to know immediately what Abalin had done. Through the sheets of rain between them, Abalin saw the anger in Hux’s eyes harden into something colder. At the same moment, the tumult of Hux’s thoughts went completely, eerily silent.  
_Hux_. Abalin reached blindly through Hux’s mind, unnerved by the sudden emptiness on the other side of the bond. He grasped for a thought, a memory, a feeling—anything. Hux wasn’t blocking Abalin out, but he seemed to have replaced every thought and emotion with a pure, sterile silence. Abalin could not draw even a flicker of response, although his desperation must have been flooding through Hux’s mind.   
Abalin heard Poe say, “Cuff them both,” and his hands were bound behind his back. The Resistance soldiers shoved Abalin and Hux towards the shuttle. They ascended the causeway and then Hux was led away to another part of the ship. A sharp push between his shoulder blades almost sent Abalin to the ground as he was taken below deck to the cargo hold.  
_Please_ , Abalin tried once more, feeling his strength waning thin. _Hux, just listen to me._  
Silence.  
The ship rumbled to life beneath his feet as they lifted off from the surface of Persei.


	8. Chapter 8

Hux’s wrists were bound behind him. He sat on the floor of the frigid cell, his skin numb from the cold. A shiver jolted through him sporadically. Otherwise, he’d barely moved since he’d been brought here.  
That had been some ten hours ago. The shuttle from Persei had docked with a ship he’d recognized, in the brief moment he saw it from the shuttle window, as the Resistance’s sole capital ship, the _Perpetua_. His captors escorted him through a maze of dingy corridors, drawing avid stares and whispers with every step. He’d been left in the brig, which was nothing more than a tiny, derelict room full of rust and damp.  
Since then, he had heard the changing of a watch outside his cell door, but no one had entered. He had sensed nothing from Abalin, either.   
A rush of hot anger flared in his chest. How foolish he had been not to have recognized Abalin’s traitorous intentions. Of course Abalin had spared him from execution. Abalin would not have had anything to offer the Resistance if Hux were dead.  
Hux was jarred from his thoughts as the heavy metal door swung inwards, clanging against the wall. Poe Dameron stepped through, observing Hux from just inside the threshold.   
Hux smiled politely. “Commander Dameron.”  
“General Hux,” Poe returned. “You’re not looking like much of a general these days.”  
“I assume this is to be an interrogation.”  
“Something like that. Luckily for you, the Resistance is above using violence for intel. So I won’t be able to pay you back for the hospitality the First Order showed me.” Poe crossed his arms, keeping his gaze trained on Hux. “But if I had my way, I’d put you through the same torture I got when I was your prisoner.”  
“I am more than willing to endure a recreation of your stay aboard my ship,” Hux said archly. “Bring in your esteemed guest. I’m certain he would appreciate an opportunity to please his new masters.”  
Poe stared at him, his brow pinched. “What the hell are you talking about?”  
Hux paused. “Did you not recognize him on Persei?”  
“The guy you were with? He’s...some contact of General Organa’s.”  
A look of dawning comprehension spread slowly across Hux’s face. He offered a slight, smug smile. “I see.”   
Poe’s expression shifted from anger to confusion. “Who is he?”  
“I suppose you would not have known his face,” Hux said. “He has only forgone the mask in recent days.”  
“Mask? What are you—”  
“The executor of your interrogation.”  
Poe was silent for a beat. “Kylo Ren?” he said dubiously. “That’s not possible.”  
“Ask him yourself. Or better yet, ask his mother—General Organa.”  
Poe attempted a laugh, but his unease was obvious. “You’re not making any sense.”  
Hux’s smile widened incrementally. “She’s kept many secrets from you, it seems.”  
“No, she—” Poe shook his head. “She wouldn’t keep something like that from us. I don’t believe it.”  
“Figure it out for yourself, Commander,” Hux hissed, leaning towards Poe. “She sends you on a spontaneous rescue mission to find a stranger who won’t identify himself to you. Someone who knows her personal code, who knew how to reach her directly.”  
“You’re lying.”  
Hux could see the effect of his words as uncertainty flickered in Poe’s eyes. He didn’t answer, watching as Poe’s frown grew gradually deeper. Whatever Poe’s intended line of questioning had been, it was long gone, replaced with the doubt Hux had sown.   
“You weren’t with him willingly,” Poe said slowly. “You didn’t know we were coming.”  
“But he did. He arranged all of this. In exchange for atonement, he brings along a highly valued prisoner,” Hux said, his eyes fixed on Poe’s. “It seems his plan has been executed perfectly, wouldn’t you agree?”  
Numbly, Poe shook his head.   
“Of course, the Resistance has always been a haven to betrayers.” Hux’s eyes hardened. “Kylo Ren will be made a hero of the Resistance, just like FN-2187.”  
Poe crossed the room in three swift strides, crouching to Hux’s level and leaning in close. “Don’t talk about him,” he snarled.   
Hux gave a bitter smile. “He was trained to forgo attachments in the name of survival, so I would caution against growing fond of him.”  
“His name,” Poe seethed, “is Finn.”   
“FN-2187 was nothing more than a pawn to my army, and that’s all he’ll ever be—”   
Poe made a wordless sound of anger and drove his fist sharply against Hux’s jaw, snapping his head to the side. Poe’s other fist quickly followed through and struck Hux’s mouth. He roughly grabbed the collar of Hux’s tunic and yanked him upwards until the bonds on his wrists halted him in place.   
“Call him that one more time,” Poe spat.   
Hux grinned, feeling his torn lip split further as blood trickled down his chin. “A perfectly conditioned soldier,” he said softly, “who will never be free of the First Order.”  
Poe struck against his cheekbone, his temple, his eye. Laughter erupted from Hux even as the cell began to spin around him. “Tell me again how the Resistance is above violence, Commander."  
Poe’s fist drew back once more when a piercing whistle echoed harshly through the brig.   
Hux slumped against the wall when Poe released him. From the tops of his eyes, he saw the door had opened and someone was standing there, facing them. “General,” Poe began, “I—”  
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Leia demanded.  
“General Organa,” Hux breathed, spitting blood to the floor. “What an honor it is to finally meet you.”


	9. Chapter 9

Leia stared at Poe. “Explain yourself, Commander Dameron. Now.”  
“Is he telling the truth?” Poe demanded. “Is Kylo Ren your son?”  
Leia’s eyes widened and fell to Hux. Stiffly, she said, “Now is not the time to discuss this.”  
“Now is the perfect time. Because you sent me to find him, and I never would have brought him here if I had known who he was. Tell me the truth, General, or—”  
“Get out,” Leia said sharply. “What you’ve done here is unacceptable and will be dealt with later. You’re dismissed.”  
Poe stared at her as if intending to argue further. Then he abruptly turned and stormed out, letting the door slam shut behind him and leaving Leia and Hux in a ringing silence. Leia punched a button on the intercom embedded in the wall. “Send down a medical BB unit, now.”  
“That won’t be necessary,” Hux slurred.   
Leia stared down at him, as if surprised that he could speak. In a few moments, the door opened again and a gray, weathered droid rolled into the room. It approached Hux, its yellow visual sensor glancing over him. A panel opened on its round body and it extended an arm towards Hux, brandishing a syringe.  
Hux leaned away. “I insist,” he said.   
The droid whirled around to face Leia questioningly.  
“That’s too bad,” she said, “because I insist.”  
She nodded to the droid. Once again its mechanical arm neared his face. Hux tensed as the needle pricked the flesh beneath his chin. Immediately, a warmth crept through his skin. Pain turned to tingling numbness and Hux’s vision began to clear.   
“For whatever it’s worth,” Leia said, “I’m sorry. This wasn’t supposed to happen.”  
“Not a very effective interrogation strategy. Commander Dameron hardly extracted anything useful from me at all.” With a thin smile, Hux looked up and met Leia’s eyes. “Except, of course, for the nature of your relationship with Kylo Ren.”  
Leia gave no response.  
Hux leaned his head against the wall behind him. “When shall I expect to be sent off?”  
She frowned at him. “What?”  
“I imagine you’ve already informed the New Republic of my capture.”  
Leia gazed at him in silence. Finally, she said, “They don’t know you’re here. And I intend to keep it that way.”  
Hux paused. “And what would compel you to withhold me from your Republic, General?”  
“It was Admiral Divo that turned us over to the Order at Naydra and then fired on us with the New Republic fleet. We’re not on great terms.”  
Hux considered this. “You didn’t know either. About the _Vanguard’s_ weaponry.”  
“We had no idea. The designs for that technology came from the Empire. We discovered the plans in a lost Imperial archive and the New Republic seized it. I never thought it would be developed for use.”   
Hux didn’t answer for several moments. “If you believe that sharing such information will convince me to reveal First Order intelligence, you are mistaken.”  
“All I really want to know right now is why you’re here with my son.”   
Hux narrowed his eyes. “It was certainly not of my own volition.”  
“What does that mean?”  
“Do you truly think that I would walk away from the First Order? No, your son simply found an opportunity to exact his plan.” He sneered. “I trust your reunion was heartwarming.”  
“We haven’t spoken,” Leia said flatly, and then paused. “What plan?”  
“To defect to the Resistance.”   
Leia’s brow furrowed. “If he’s been planning that, it’s news to me.”   
Before he could respond, a voice filtered through the comm beside the door.  
“Connix to General Organa. There’s a...problem in the hangar. It’s Commander Dameron.”  
Leia’s frown deepened. Her eyes flickered back to Hux, who smiled through bloodied lips.   
“Will you be taking care of that, then?” he said languidly.   
“This conversation isn’t over,” she snapped, and stepped out of the brig.


	10. Chapter 10

Word spread quickly of a small commotion in the main hangar. By the time Finn made his way to the forward sector of the ship, it had escalated to something approaching a riot. As he drew nearer, he heard whispers spilling through the corridors ahead of him:   
“Do you think it’s true?”   
“The one who sent Leia’s personal code—”  
“Kylo Ren— _General Organa’s son.”_   
Finn’s heart sank. General Organa had asked him not to share what he had learned on Starkiller Base with anyone, so he knew that she’d wanted to keep this secret. But now, with Kylo Ren on board the _Perpetua_ , it seemed that the game was up.   
A sizeable group had gathered on the hangar floor. Poe’s face was visible above the crowd, and as Finn got closer he saw that he had climbed a stack of crates. “I’m telling you exactly what Hux told me,” he was saying. “Kylo Ren is here. He’s the guy General Organa had us rescue from Persei.”  
Finn found Connix standing apart from the crowd, wearing a troubled expression. “What is he doing?” Finn asked her.  
“I don’t know,” Connix muttered. “But it isn’t right. I notified General Organa and she’s on her way.”  
Finn looked on as Poe said, “General Organa sent us to retrieve Kylo Ren from Persei, but she didn’t tell us who he was. Now we’re harboring two high-level fugitives, putting us in danger of retaliation from the Order. And on top of that, Kylo Ren is—”   
“Poe, stop.”  
Everyone turned towards Finn. He pushed his way forward until he was standing beside BB-8, looking up at Poe. “You don’t know what you’re saying,” Finn said. “We have to trust General Organa on this.”  
Poe stared at him. “You knew,” he realized.   
Finn glanced around at the faces staring at him, then looked back to Poe. “Yes,” he said, more quietly. “But it doesn’t matter.”  
“It doesn’t—how could it not?” Poe balked. “Now he’s on _our_ ship and we are all in danger. And General Organa wasn’t even going to tell us.”  
“This isn’t about you, Poe. This isn’t about any of us.”   
“But she’s been lying all this time—”   
“Poe is right,” Leia’s voice broke in. “I should have told you.”   
The crowd parted to let her through, and she went to stand beside Poe’s makeshift stage. “Kylo Ren and General Hux are both aboard this ship. And…” She hesitated, looking briefly to Finn. “And Kylo Ren is my son, Ben.”  
A murmur of stunned disbelief swept through the crowd, immediately breaking off into silence as Leia began to speak again.  
“I don’t think he’s dangerous to us,” Leia continued. “But...we should still be careful.”   
“Not dangerous?” Poe shook his head. “Do I need to remind you what he did to me? After Jakku? How many people he’s killed, including—”  
“I know,” Leia said softly. “I understand that there may be some doubts about him being here. But this is my son. He came here for a reason. Let me get more information. All I ask for is a little more time. In the meanwhile, please go about your duties as normal.”  
The crowd, more or less mollified by Leia’s words, began to disperse. They moved off, chattering amongst themselves, and the hangar quickly cleared. Poe turned to Leia. Sullenly, he asked, “So are you going to demote me?”  
“No,” Leia huffed. “But that little stunt back there with Hux is going to make things a lot more difficult.”  
Finn turned to Poe. “What did you do?”  
“Well, I…” Flustered, he showed Finn his split knuckles. “He started talking about you, and I sort of lost it.”  
Finn took his hand, gently brushing his fingers over Poe’s bloodied skin. “Did you really punch Hux?” he chuckled. To Leia, he said, “Do I get a turn?”  
“Only after I’m through with him,” Leia sighed. Her gaze drifted in the direction of the brig. “He certainly knows how to make trouble, I’ll give him that.”


	11. Chapter 11

Hux jolted awake. For a few dizzying moments, he could not work out where he was. His mind tried automatically to impose the shape of his _Finalizer_ quarters onto his tiny cell in the _Perpetua_.   
Uneasy, Hux pushed himself upright as he tried to identify what had woken him. He remembered a sudden surge of dread, but nothing more. He would have been prepared to dismiss it as a particularly unpleasant dream when it came again, blindsiding him like a physical blow.   
When he came back to himself, he was cradling his head in his hands, his breathing shaky and painful. He still didn’t understand what the feeling was, other than a sense of fear so overamplified that it became numbness. But there was no mistaking that it came from Abalin.  
It was the first time Hux had sensed anything significant from Abalin since they’d been separated on Persei. In the first few days they were on the _Perpetua_ , he had felt Abalin reach out towards him once or twice. Whenever Hux felt Abalin’s presence, Hux had emptied his mind to the same depthless silence that he’d perfected on Persei. Abalin had withdrawn from Hux’s mind, betraying only a brief moment of hurt before he was gone. Very soon, Abalin had stopped trying to reach him at all.  
This was different, though. Hux knew for certain that the feeling was coming from Abalin, but he was less sure that Abalin was getting through to him on purpose.  
Hux sat very still, waiting. When the feeling came again, he was ready for it, grasping at Abalin’s presence like trying to grab onto someone as they were pulled downriver in a violent current. Abalin seemed so desperate for something to hold onto that he didn’t realize he had found Hux—at least not at first.  
Recognition sparked into Abalin, followed by an icy rush of fear.  
In a hushed whisper, as if hoping to avoid being overheard, Abalin’s voice said, _Hux?  
_ The next moment, Hux was reeling so badly that he had to brace his palm against the wall to keep himself upright. Whatever Abalin was hoping to hide from, it had found him. It felt as though something of colossal scale had struck Abalin so hard that he’d been ripped away, leaving behind a resounding silence.  
Hux’s breathing slowly leveled out and he was left feeling strangely isolated. He had no idea what was happening to Abalin, and no way of finding out. He waited, but the feeling did not come again.  
In the crack of light under the door, he saw two shadows appear. He heard a brief exchange in murmured voices, and then the door swung open.  
Failing to maintain his usual air of impassivity, Hux stared at Leia in surprise. After a few moments, she said tersely, “Something is wrong with Ben.”  
Hux didn’t answer, remembering the feeling of Abalin being wrenched from his mind.  
She stepped out of the doorway, opening up Hux’s path to the corridor beyond. “Please come.”  
  
  
  


***  
  
  
  


They approached a door at the end of a long hall. A small group of officers parted to let Leia through. She led Hux into Abalin’s room, which was crowded with too many people. They were medics, judging by their uniforms, and they were conversing in low, anxious murmurs. All of them fell silent as Hux stepped into the room.   
At first Hux didn’t even see Abalin. He was curled against the wall, his eyes shut. He didn’t react to Hux’s arrival.  
Hux took a few steps towards him and then halted. He glanced around at the medics in the room and the officers hovering near the door.   
“Get out,” Hux said levelly.   
They stood motionless, staring blankly back at him.  
Hux cast an impatient glance at Leia. She looked back at him in silence for a moment before turning to the medics. “Wait down the hall. I’ll send for you if we need you.”  
A few of them paused to give Hux defiant looks as they left, although Hux barely spared them a glance in return. He stood perfectly still as they filed around him and out of the room. Leia remained near the doorway. Hux crossed over to Abalin and dropped to a crouch in front of him.  
“Abalin,” Hux said, uncertainly.  
Beneath closed lids, Abalin’s eyes flickered. Otherwise, there was no response.  
Hesitantly, Hux reached out and brushed his fingers along Abalin’s hand.  
Abalin’s eyes flew open and locked on Hux with startling ferocity. At the same moment, Hux felt something shift, not in Abalin but in the air around them. The room felt smaller, as if another presence had suddenly taken up every remaining square inch of space. As Hux glanced uneasily over his shoulder, he realized he wasn’t the only one who could feel it: Leia’s keen eyes darted around the room, apprehension evident on her face.   
His tone slow and guarded, Hux said, “What is this?”  
Abalin’s voice was hoarse. “Snoke found me.”   
“What do you mean, he found you? Why does it feel like he’s...here?”  
Abalin let his eyes fall shut and leaned his head against the wall. He answered so softly that Hux barely heard him: something about an unstable channel between them. Something about how Abalin must have finally fallen asleep.   
Hux had never seen Abalin so pale. “How do we close the channel?”  
Abalin seemed not to hear him. Before Hux could ask again, he felt another shift. He could not stop himself from glancing around the room. The presence of Snoke seemed to shimmer, just barely short of tangible, before flickering away again.   
When Hux looked back towards Abalin, his face had filled with raw terror. “No,” Abalin breathed.  
“Abalin?”  
Another acute wave of Snoke’s presence pulsed through the room, then vanished. Hux understood at some level below logic that the channel was destabilizing. Snoke was pulling away, and taking Abalin with him.  
Abalin pressed himself against Hux, whispering—pleading—into the collar of Hux’s shirt. His hands closed convulsively on Hux’s lapels, and Hux felt Abalin’s mind clutch at the edges of his own, just as it had when Abalin woke him up.  
Abalin tilted his head upward to meet Hux’s eyes, and Hux saw the idea hit him at the same moment it occurred to Hux himself.   
“Try it again,” Hux said.  
Abalin started to shake his head. “I don’t know if—”  
“Do it,” Hux said sharply.  
After a few seconds, he said, “Let go of me if you have to. But don’t lose yourself.”  
Hux nodded. Abalin took a long breath and drove himself into Hux’s mind.  
It felt like a pickaxe splitting granite, but it worked; Abalin held there, anchored in Hux’s thoughts. There was no longer any distance between their minds and Hux now felt the full weight of what Abalin had been resisting: a pull as inexorable as gravity but sentient, malignant.  
The solidity of Hux’s presence seemed to give Abalin what he needed. The connection between Snoke and Abalin shattered, and something in Abalin’s mind slammed shut.   
Abalin wrenched himself out of Hux’s brain with a shudder. He slumped, burying his face in Hux’s shoulder. Still dazed, Hux held Abalin tightly against his chest. Neither of them moved until a soft voice said, “Ben?”  
Leia took a few steps towards them. Abalin flinched, shrinking away from her. She halted. “What happened?”  
Abalin shook his head mutely.   
“Was that Snoke?” Leia sounded frustrated. “I don’t understand.”  
“General Organa,” Hux said quietly, surprised to hear his own voice shake. “It would be better to leave this for later.”  
Leia ignored him. “How did Snoke find you?”  
Hux had the alarming feeling of Abalin retreating into himself, pulling away from where he had just begun to settle in the relative stability of Hux’s thoughts. He let go of Abalin and started to stand, but Abalin clung to him more tightly. _Just a moment,_ Hux told him, brushing him off.  
Leia watched Hux coldly as he rose to his feet. “I need to know what’s going on.”  
“I will tell you what I can,” Hux said, “but we should have this conversation in the hall.”  
They stood staring each other down for several beats. Then Leia wheeled around and headed for the door, wordlessly instructing Hux to follow. 


	12. Chapter 12

“All right,” Leia said once the door had closed behind them. “So tell me.”  
“Tell you what?”  
“Everything you know.”  
Hux took a moment to compose himself. “I’m not sure I quite understand it. For some reason Snoke was able to gain access to Abalin’s mind—”  
“How?”  
“He said something about...falling asleep. I think perhaps Snoke had been trying to reach him for some time. And then when Abalin’s defenses were lowered—”  
“When did this start?”  
“I don’t know,” he snapped. “I would guess a long while ago.” He remembered the exhaustion in Abalin’s eyes. How, in the brief moment between Abalin shutting Snoke out and leaving Hux’s mind, Hux had felt what was left of Abalin’s strength, worn to a nearly unrecognizable shadow of what Hux had known in him. How it had dwindled almost to nothing.   
Leia looked at him shrewdly. “Is Snoke trying to kill him?”  
“I imagine so.”  
“Did you know this would happen to him?”  
Hux’s eyes cut to Leia. “No,” he said, more sharply than he intended. He allowed a slight pause. “Snoke will try to kill him again,” Hux went on more quietly. “I’ll do what I can, but…”   
Leia’s expression softened. “Stay with him. He needs you.”  
Hux hesitated, then gave a short nod. He glanced at the closed door. “Is there anything else,” he said, without inflection, suddenly exhausted.  
She stepped past Hux and punched in a code on a keypad beside the door. It swung open and Hux stepped inside.  
Abalin hadn’t moved an inch, still leaning on the wall. He stirred at the sound of the door, raising his eyes to Hux and Leia briefly before looking away again.  
Leia remained at the threshold while Hux went to kneel next to Abalin. “Ask one of the officers posted outside if you want to see me. They’ll come get me right away.”  
Hux said, “Fine,” hoping she would be satisfied with a response from him.  
She wasn’t. She stood in the doorway until Abalin finally gave a tiny nod.  
There were a few moments of painful silence. “I hope you’re all right, Ben,” Leia said softly.   
Abalin’s expression did not change as the door slid closed behind Leia. “Come on,” Hux said, holding out his hand. Abalin took it hesitantly and followed Hux to the bed in the corner of the room.  
They settled onto the cot. Abalin twisted his fingers into the fabric of Hux’s shirt while Hux stroked Abalin’s hair, trying to sort through his own scattered thoughts. After a few minutes, he said quietly, “Abalin, how long has this been going on?”   
Abalin shifted slightly, as if bracing himself. “This was the first time Snoke has been able to affect me like that.”  
“But you’ve known that he could reach you for some time.”  
“Yes.” Abalin’s eyes were fixed on the corner of the room. “Snoke first found me when I was searching for my mother. I thought I avoided him. But somehow he...left a part of himself in my mind. I didn’t realize it at first.”  
“When did you know?”  
He seemed to struggle to remember. “Sometime before we reached Persei. But I thought it would be the same way I heard him when I was a child,” Abalin said softly. “I thought I would be able to block him out.”  
They were both silent until Hux said, brusquely, “You could have said something.”  
Abalin’s voice was subdued. “I didn’t know how to tell you.”  
Neither of them spoke for several minutes. Hux finally glanced down at Abalin and said gently, “You should sleep.”  
Abalin’s eyes flickered. “That’s how he found me this time,” he mumbled.  
Hux considered this. “Do you think,” he said slowly, “if I...listened, I would know if he found you again?”   
His fingers fidgeted with a handful of Hux’s shirt. “I’m not sure.”  
Hux covered Abalin’s hand with his own. “You have to sleep sometime. I’ll stay awake.”  
Unexpected by either of them, a vivid pulse of Abalin’s thoughts came through to Hux: days’ worth of exhaustion coupled with the feeling of something like safety now that Hux was next to him. Suddenly Abalin could not have stayed awake if he tried.  
“Just a few hours,” he murmured. Hux shifted so that Abalin could lay more comfortably against him.   
Abalin’s eyes fell closed, his mind brushing against Hux’s as he sank into the warmth that he found there.


	13. Chapter 13

_“Bay doors opening. Hangar crew stand clear.”  
_Leia frowned as the announcement crackled over the shipwide comm. She had not authorized an arrival—in fact, she had not even been informed that any ships were requesting to dock with the _Perpetua_. From the command center, she strode to the hangar, where a crowd had gathered. She pushed through until she was in front of the bay doors, then stopped cold as she caught sight of the approaching ship.  
The _Millennium Falcon.  
_ Leia stood rooted to the floor as everyone else surged towards the _Falcon_ , cheering. With a hiss of steam, the causeway began to lower. Poe and Finn were the first to greet Rey as she stepped out, embracing her before she was even halfway out of the ship.   
Rey made her way through the crowd until she was standing in front of Leia. She darted forward and caught Leia in a tight embrace. “General Organa. I’m so glad to see you again.”   
Surprised, it took a moment for Leia to return the hug. “I’m happy to see the _Falcon_ got you back in one piece,” Leia replied with a laugh. When they pulled apart, Leia kept her hands on Rey’s elbows. “What happened on Ahch-To? Where’s Luke?”  
Rey’s face grew somber. “He wouldn’t come back. I’m sorry.”  
“Wasn’t he training you?”  
Something pinched in Rey’s expression. “Yes,” she said. “There’s a lot I need to tell you.”   
Leia nodded, trying to quell her growing unease. “I’ll have some people help you unload the _Falcon._ We can catch up later.” She offered Rey a smile. “Welcome to the _Perpetua_.”  
Rey turned back to the _Falcon._ Leia caught Finn and Poe’s eyes and waved them over.   
“Commander Dameron, I need you to keep Rey occupied. Show her to the crew quarters. But…” She hesitated. “Don’t tell her that Ben is here yet.”  
Poe raised an eyebrow, but he gave a short nod. “You got it, General,” he said as he headed off.  
To Finn, Leia said, “Walk with me.”  
They left the hangar together, walking side by side through the halls. “I’m sure you think I should tell Rey that Ben is here straight away.”  
“Oh, no, they’ll kill each other,” Finn said breezily. “Do you have a plan?”  
“No,” admitted Leia. “But I think we should talk to General Hux first.”   
  
  
  


***  
  
  
  


“This can’t take long,” Hux said, shrugging off the guards that had brought him from Abalin’s quarters to the conference room where Leia was waiting for him.   
“It won’t,” Leia said flatly.  
Hux’s eyes briefly met hers before going to Finn. “You’ve brought a guest.”   
Finn held his stare. “Yeah. FN-2187. Remember me?”  
“Of course,” Hux said smoothly. “How could I forget the First Order’s most notorious traitor?”  
“Besides yourself,” Finn returned.  
Hux gave an icy smile. “I am no traitor. I can assure you of that.”  
“Listen,” interrupted Leia. “Rey just arrived in the _Millennium Falcon_ from Ahch-To.”  
Hux turned back to her. “The scavenger from Jakku?”  
“Yes. She doesn’t know Ben is here yet, and...I thought it might be better if they both had some time to get used to the idea of sharing a ship.”  
Hux was quiet for several moments. “What is she doing here, General Organa?”  
“I don’t know. But she’s been training with Luke Skywalker all this time, so maybe she can help Ben somehow.”  
“She has been training to kill Abalin, specifically, has she not?”  
“He does have a point,” Finn said.  
Leia gave an impatient sigh. “Will you please just warn him that she’s here?”  
“Why don’t you tell him?” Hux said.  
“You know why. Because—” Her voice fell slightly. “Because it will be better if he hears it from you.”  
Hux was silent, regarding her impassively. Then he looked away with a twitch in his jaw and said, “Fine. I will talk to him.”  
She nodded. “Thank you.”  
He gave Finn a lingering glance as he brushed past him out of the room, then let the guards lead him away. 


	14. Chapter 14

Poe guided Rey to an empty berth in the crew quarters. He’d offered to give her a tour of the ship, but she declined with the promise that he could show her around tomorrow. It had been a long journey from Ahch-To, and more than anything, she was eager to sleep on a bed that wasn’t one of the _Falcon’s_ lumpy cots.   
She’d just started to settle into bed when a strange feeling began to needle her. Unnerved, she rose from the bed and stood uncertainly at the door to her new quarters. She hesitated, then stepped out into the hall.   
Once she started walking, she found herself navigating each corner without pause, although she’d never been on the _Perpetua_ before now. Something drew her onward, deeper into the ship, towards a presence that was unsettlingly familiar.  
Rey stood outside a door at the end of a hall. She held her breath and pressed her ear to the door, but heard nothing above the pounding of her heart. Steeling herself, she pushed and the door swung inwards.  
Inside was Kylo Ren.  
 _“You,”_ she snarled.  
She took a step back as he scrambled to his feet. In a flash of movement, she drew her blaster and trained it on him.  
He began to say, “Rey, wait—”  
She fired.  
He threw out his hand, halting the bolt inches from his chest. He redirected the blast into the wall beside him, the metal panels crumpling. The blaster was torn from her hand before she could fire again. He threw it aside, sending it clattering across the floor. Rey advanced on him, her arm crossing her torso as she reached for the silver hilt at her hip.  
_“Stop!”_   
A hand closed on Rey’s wrist before she could withdraw the lightsaber. She spun and found Leia’s eyes boring into hers. “He is not a threat to you.”  
Rey pulled away from Leia’s grip, staring at her in disbelief. Her eyes bounced from Leia to Finn, who had appeared beside her. “What is he doing here?” Rey demanded.  
Another man appeared in the door and swiftly crossed the room to Abalin’s side. With a jolt, she recognized him as General Hux of the First Order.   
“Let us explain,” Leia tried to soothe her, but Rey’s eyes were fixed on Abalin.  
The man before her hardly resembled the Kylo Ren from her memory. As she studied him, she began to notice the dark circles beneath his eyes, the gauntness of his once menacing frame.   
Rey heard Hux murmur to him, “Are you hurt?”   
Abalin shook his head. Hux glanced down, finding Rey’s blaster pistol near his feet. He kicked it across the floor to Finn. “What did I say?” he said scathingly. To Leia, he snarled, “Get her out.”  
Leia moved to stand between her and Abalin. “Rey, listen to me—”  
“Tell me what is going on,” Rey said with an angry tremor in her voice.  
“We will,” Finn interjected. He picked up her blaster off the ground and nodded towards the door. “Come on.”   
With a lingering glance behind her, Rey followed Finn and Leia out of the room. 


	15. Chapter 15

Despite Hux’s reservations, Abalin agreed to speak to Rey again the following day. Leia brought him to a room in a little-used area of the ship, and told him Rey would meet him there.  
He’d only been waiting a few minutes when Rey entered, her expression wary. “Abalin,” she said slowly, testing the name she had heard Hux use.  
Abalin nodded, not meeting her eyes.  
She was quiet for a few moments, and Abalin sensed her studying him intently. “What’s happened to you?”  
“Snoke.”  
Her face was pinched in confusion. “What has he done?”  
Abalin glanced up at her and then away again. Flatly, he said, “A part of him has infected my mind. I thought that once I left the Order, I would be free of him. But I was wrong.” He lapsed into a brief silence. “I’m not sure how much longer I can fight him.”  
“He did this to you because you left the Order?”  
“Yes.”  
“Why leave now? After everything you’ve done?”  
Abalin’s mouth twitched. “I had to,” he said shortly.  
Rey didn’t answer immediately. She took a few steps into the room and dropped into a chair opposite Abalin. “How are you going to get Snoke out of your mind?”  
“I have to kill Snoke before he kills me.”  
“How would you do that?”  
He shook his head slowly. “It won’t be easy.”  
“He’s with the Order, isn’t he? Can’t we find him there?”  
“It’s not that simple. The First Order exists to guard Snoke.”  
Rey frowned. “I thought Snoke wanted to control the galaxy,” she said. “Isn’t that why the First Order exists?”  
Abalin weighed his answer. “Control of the galaxy is the means to an end,” he said softly. “Once the First Order wins, there will be no one left to fight him. That’s what Snoke really wants.” He paused, his voice falling to a murmur. “If that happens, I think he would eventually corrupt so much of the Force that there would be no Light left.”  
Rey looked disbelieving. “Is that possible?”  
“I don’t know,” Abalin said. “There have been times when the Light was almost wiped out. I don’t know if he could destroy it altogether. But it’s already started.” His eyes flickered to Rey’s. “I’m sure you feel it. He’s getting stronger and it’s altering the Force more and more.”  
Rey shook her head. “I still don’t understand why we can’t fight him. You saw Snoke all the time on the _Finalizer_.”  
“That was only a projection. I don’t know where he is.”  
She looked annoyed, as if Abalin were being deliberately obscure. “Then how do you expect to kill him?”  
“I just told you, I don’t know,” Abalin said bluntly. “First I have to get rid of the part of Snoke that’s in my mind. I have no idea what’s after that.”  
Rey fidgeted. “There must be a way to go after Snoke. There must be something that I can do—”  
“You’re not listening,” Abalin said, an edge creeping into his voice. “I don’t know how to tell you what you need to understand.”  
“Well, you’re not explaining much.”  
“I’m explaining the best I can. I can’t make you listen.”  
“Then show me,” said Rey.   
He looked at her uncertainly. “What?”  
“You’re right. I don’t understand. But if you let me into your mind and show me your memories of Snoke—”  
“That’s not a good idea.”  
“What else can we do?” Rey asked impatiently. “You said yourself that you can’t keep this up much longer.” She paused. “If you really want to kill Snoke, I want to help. But I have to understand what’s going on first.”  
Abalin closed his eyes. After a few moments of debate, he glanced back up at her. “Do you know how to do this?” he said quietly.  
Rey bristled. “Yes.”  
“You’ve been training with Luke?”  
“Yes,” she snapped.  
He hesitated another moment. Then, in a voice dull with fatigue, he said, “All right.”  
Rey brought her chair around the corner of the table so she was beside him. “Are you ready?” she said.  
Abalin didn’t answer immediately, scrutinizing her. She looked eager, sure of herself, unafraid.  
“Are you?” he said.  
If Rey heard the doubt in his voice, she didn’t react to it. She nodded and held out her hand. He started to reach towards her, then paused. “I’ll be watching for Snoke,” he murmured, “but be careful.” Tempering a renewed spike of uncertainty, he wrapped his hand around hers.  
Rey shut her eyes in concentration. He immediately felt her presence pushing against his, gratingly familiar from when she had forced her way into his thoughts at their first meeting. He tried to find calm in his mind, doing his best to numb the feeling of impending invasion every time Rey neared his thoughts.  
His mind opened by degrees, taking in more of the Force energy surrounding them. He could feel other presences not far away—just on the other side of the door—there was Finn, distrustful, verging on angry; Leia, anxious for both himself and Rey beneath a veneer of calm; Hux—startled. He was the only one to react to Abalin, and it took Abalin a moment to realize it was because Hux had been listening for him.  
He and Rey both drew in a sharp breath, and as easily as that she was through. For a moment they were unsteady in each other’s thoughts. Unlike Hux, Rey brought with her a nearly overwhelming connection to the Force. He quickly found that he needed to counterbalance with his own connection or else he would be swept away by her.  
They both began to feel the depth of their connection, a dizzyingly unfiltered stream of thought and feeling. A rush of exhilaration sparked through both of them. But even as it became harder to distinguish where Rey’s emotions ended and his own began, he was aware of a third presence that Rey had not sensed. He focused on it and envisioned keeping it trapped and harmless, away from her.  
Half of his attention was drawn back to Rey as she began to sink into his memories—recent ones first, the ones never far from the surface: the echo of thunder as a Resistance ship lands on the plains of Persei—Hux standing before him in a darkened Holochamber, lit in pulsating red—a holocron resting on a shelf of slick black rock, washed in the dim light of ocher-colored flame. He felt Rey start as she recognized herself with Finn beside her, two faraway figures standing above the chasm of an oscillator, their backs to a dying sun.  
Abalin tried to guide her back to the memories of Snoke, but she seemed mesmerized by the heady strangeness of the meld. She was racing backwards in time, calling forward older memories, buried deeper—Abalin is Kylo seeing Snoke for the first time as more than a dark whisper in his head—Abalin is Ben, barely a teenager, crackling with resentment as Luke tells him to master his emotions or he’ll never be a powerful Jedi—  
The deeper Rey was drawn in, the harder it was for Abalin to keep track of her and Snoke at the same time. Somewhere, distantly, something in his mind shifted.  
_Wait,_ Abalin said sharply.  
She ignored him, or couldn’t hear him. Each time he tried to catch up to her, she would press on another distant memory, sending jolts of fear or anger or pain into his mind, always accompanied by a muddled snatch of conversation or a flash of something he thought he’d long forgotten. Rey was creating a smokescreen of his own memories that obscured her presence as he tried with increasing urgency to find her.  
In the back of Abalin’s mind, a slow unfurling realization that did not belong to him.   
Abalin closed his hand spasmodically over Rey’s in a desperate attempt to bring her back. But she was too lost in the meld to notice, her face blank even as he squeezed her hand until his own fingers hurt. The memories were still bursting into his mind, no longer in chronological order, just an assemblage of things he tried not to think about—   
A little girl is crying in front of him, whispering _you’re scaring me_ —Irizar stares at him, furious, as Snoke orders him to train Kylo—the same memory flashes forward and Irizar is telling him to get up, he’ll have to do better if Kylo wants him to give a good report to Leader Snoke, but Kylo’s hearing is hazy and indistinct as his own blood soaks into the dirt beneath Irizar’s boots.  
Dismissing all of this, Abalin projected into his own thoughts as clearly as he could: _Rey. Stop.  
_ With horrific clarity, he felt Snoke breach from the part of Abalin’s mind where he had been contained. The presence of him, vastly larger than either of them, moved into the meld.  
“No!”  
Abalin wrenched his eyes open. Rey was slumped against the far wall. In a spasm of Force energy, he had thrown her backwards at the same time he cast her from his mind.  
The abrupt severance of the meld drove spikes of pain into Abalin’s head. He felt the shadow of Snoke’s presence return to the decaying patch of thought where it lived, reknitting itself into Abalin’s mind too quickly for him to stop it.  
The door burst open and the three people that Abalin had sensed nearby—Finn, Leia, and Hux—stood in the doorway. 


	16. Chapter 16

Finn was the first one into the room. He ran to Rey and draped an arm around her, helping her to sit up. “Are you all right? What did he do to you?”   
Rey was cradling her head in her hands. “He threw me out of his mind,” she hissed, and then raised her eyes to Abalin. “What is wrong with you?”  
Hux stepped past Leia into the room. He looked calculatingly at Rey for several moments, then turned towards Abalin. He reached for Abalin in his mind, finding a tangle of fear and guilt—and beyond that, something else. Something retreating.  
Finn and Rey were still leveling a volley of accusations at Abalin from across the room. Ignoring them, Hux knelt at Abalin’s side and touched his shoulder. “What is it?”  
Between rattling gasps, Abalin choked, “He saw.”  
Finn and Rey went silent. All four of them looked blankly at Abalin.  
“He saw,” Abalin repeated. “I tried not to let him, but…”  
“Snoke?” Hux guessed quietly.  
Abalin nodded and Rey recoiled against the wall. “No,” she protested. “He can’t have—I would have known.”  
Hux said slowly, “How much did he find out?”  
“Everything. Rey and I together, with the Resistance. On this ship. Where the _Falcon_ intercepted the _Perpetua_.”  
“That’s only two days’ travel from here.” Hux was silent for a beat. “So the First Order will be able to find us.”  
“No,” Rey repeated numbly. “He couldn’t know all that. It was only a second.”   
“So you did feel Snoke in the meld?” Leia said.  
Rey shook her head, blinking rapidly. “I—I don’t know—”  
“How can he be so sure of any of this?” Finn demanded. “All of a sudden he can—what, read Snoke’s mind?”  
“I can’t read his mind,” Abalin said without looking at Finn. “But I felt it when he found Rey.”  
Hux watched him for several moments and then said, “You’re certain of this?”  
Abalin looked back at him steadily and nodded.  
Hux straightened and turned to face Leia. “If the First Order finds this ship, it will be surrounded and destroyed. There will not be time for a fight.”  
He could sense Finn looking at Leia expectantly, waiting for her to defend the _Perpetua’s_ capabilities. But Leia shook her head. “We can’t stand up to a First Order assault if we’re caught out here in the black,” she admitted. “If we can find somewhere to hide the _Perpetua_ , maybe at a nearby Resistance base, and scatter our personnel throughout the system—”  
“I wouldn’t advise that,” Hux said coldly.  
“Why not?”  
“Because the First Order will have no qualms about razing any city or settlement that it suspects of harboring Resistance fighters. They won’t wait to check names against the _Perpetua’s_ manifest, if that’s what you’re expecting.”  
Leia scowled. “Then what is your suggestion?”  
Before Hux could answer, Abalin spoke over him. “I might be able to lie to Snoke,” he said, very quietly.  
Hux swiveled to look at him. “What?”  
“Snoke knows I felt him find Rey. If I can re-open the channel to him and make it seem like Rey and I are breaking away from the Resistance and fleeing to a nearby planet…”  
“He would redirect the First Order forces away from this ship,” Leia finished.  
Hux was silent for several moments. “If you can convince Snoke to send only what he needs to capture you and Rey, we can position the Resistance to ambush the First Order units,” he said, and looked to Leia. “After that, you’ll have a chance to slip away before Snoke can direct the fleet to find the _Perpetua_.” He glanced at Abalin. “Are you certain you’ll be able to do this?”   
Abalin’s eyes flickered briefly. “I’ll try,” he said.  
“Finn, go to the command bridge and issue an all-call,” Leia said. “We need everyone on alert. Rey, go with him.”  
Casting one last bitter glance at Hux and Abalin, Finn started towards the bridge with Rey following behind him.  
Leia looked back to Abalin. “Ben, I don’t know about this. It seems dangerous—”  
“Would you prefer to face a destroyer and a flotilla of TIEs in this decrepit ship?” Hux snapped.   
Leia turned to glower at him. “I’m not going to lose my son to Snoke again for an idea that might not even work. Don’t you understand what you’re asking him to do? Deliberately making himself vulnerable to Snoke—”  
“I do,” Hux broke in, with audible strain in his voice. He let out a long breath, then went on in a more reserved tone. “I do understand that it’s dangerous. As does Abalin. But he is the best authority we have on the subject, so I am taking him at his word.”  
Leia and Hux turned towards Abalin, who had risen to his feet. “I can do it,” he said softly. “But I need somewhere to send him. I have to be able to project where Rey and I are going next.”  
Leia seemed to deliberate briefly. Then she said, “Deiene. It’s only a few parsecs from here.”  
Abalin nodded. “Deiene,” he repeated.  
“General Organa, I expect you’ll want to go oversee preparations,” Hux said. “I think it would be best if I stayed here with him.”  
“I agree,” she said. “I’ll be on the command bridge. Come find me as soon as you can.”  
From outside came a piercing two-toned siren. Leia started to turn towards the hallway. “That’s the all-call. I should go, but—”  
A silence stretched out for several beats too long. He glanced at Leia and was struck by how different she looked as she gazed at Abalin, her usually fierce expression suddenly full of fear.  
The next moment she recovered herself and gave another short nod. “Please be safe, Ben,” she said, and turned to leave.  
Once she was gone, Hux pulled the door closed after her, muting the continuous keening of the alarm system. He crossed the room to stand near Abalin and Abalin took his hand.   
“I don’t want Snoke to know that you’re with me, so it’s better if you’re not here while I try to reach him. But…” His fingers tightened around Hux’s. “Stay close.”  
Hux nodded, as if the entire thing were a matter of course. “I’ll be just outside.”  
Abalin’s thumb was tracing the inside of Hux’s palm. “Don’t let anyone else into this room, and don’t try to reach me through our bond until I come find you. And if something goes wrong…” He hesitated. “Do you have your blaster?”  
Hux faltered for a moment. “Why?”  
“In case I make a mistake. In case I let Snoke get too far. I don’t want to hurt anyone here. If it comes to that...I want my mother to be able to remember me like this.”  
“Abalin, that won’t happen,” Hux said firmly.   
“Please, Hux,” he said. “I’m trusting you.”  
After several seconds of silence, Hux nodded mutely. Abalin took a deep, steadying breath, then straightened. “I’ll come find you when it’s done,” he said.  
Hux stood rooted to the spot for another moment, wanting to say something. In the end he only managed to echo Leia’s farewell: “Be safe,” he said, and squeezed Abalin’s hand tightly before he let go and stepped back. With a last brief glance from the hallway, Hux shut the door.  
Abalin was alone. 


	17. Chapter 17

As soon as Leia reached the command bridge, Poe saw her from across the room and ducked through the crowd to reach her. Rey and Finn were a step behind him.   
“General Organa, Finn just told us we’re getting ready to engage with the Order,” Poe said. “Do you have a heading for us?”  
“Deiene. And we need ground forces ready to deploy as soon as possible.”  
Poe’s face twisted in confusion. “Why would the First Order be looking for us on Deiene?”  
“Something happened with Rey and Ben—”  
“It was my fault,” Rey murmured.  
“It doesn’t matter whose fault it was. Now all that matters is how well we prepare.” Leia looked between them. “Did either of you tell anyone else what happened?”  
Finn and Rey shook their heads.   
“Good. Leave it that way. Poe, go to the main hangar to keep an eye on preparations. Finn, go with him. Rey, walk with me?”  
Rey paled. Behind her, Poe and Finn exchanged glances. Leia reached out and put a hand on her arm reassuringly, then started to gently pull her away. “Keep your comm lines open,” Leia said over her shoulder to Poe and Finn.   
“General Organa,” Rey started, looking at her with wide eyes, “I am so sorry, I—”  
“Listen to me, Rey,” Leia said. Still holding her elbow, Leia guided her into a small alcove off the main corridor. “Right now, Ben is doing everything he can to throw Snoke off the trail. So I need you,” she pressed on, as Rey opened her mouth to offer another apology, “to make sure you’re ready for whatever happens next. Can you do that?”  
“Yes,” Rey said instantly. “I can go help Poe and Finn with the ships, or—”  
“I don’t need another mechanic, Rey,” Leia cut in gently. “What I need is a Jedi.”  
Rey hesitated. Then, softly, she said, “But I’m not a Jedi. I wanted to tell you before. Luke sent me away. That’s why I came back here.”  
Leia drew back in surprise. Trying to keep her voice level, she said, “What about all the time you were gone? Wasn’t he training you then?”  
“Yes...sometimes. But we argued, and I said he needed to come back and help you, and...he refused. He told me he wouldn’t teach me anything else.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,” she said in a whisper.  
Leia’s face softened. She regarded Rey for a long moment in silence and then gave a sigh. “I appreciate you trying to bring him back, Rey. And Jedi or not, I’m glad to have you here.”  
Rey’s mouth flickered into a smile as she looked up and met Leia’s eyes. “I’ll help however I can,” she said sincerely.  
“I know you will. We’ll need you.” Leia smiled back at her. “For now, go and help Poe in the hangar.”  
Rey nodded. “Thank you,” she said in a small voice, and then hugged Leia around the neck. With another brief nod, she was gone.   
  
  
  


***  
  
  
  


Hours passed before Abalin appeared at the door to the command bridge with Hux beside him. Leia stood, murmuring a short apology to the officer who had been speaking to her, and met them at the door. “Ben,” she said softly.   
He met her gaze and his eyes flashed with a brief, fierce spark. “It worked,” he said. “I reached him. Snoke. He’s sending the Ren to Deiene.”  
“You’re sure?” Leia said.  
“I was only connected to him for a moment,” Abalin said, “but I’m sure.”   
He looked spent. Leia wanted desperately to hug him, but she held herself back. Instead she reached out to touch his arm, her eyes flickering across his face. “Thank you,” she said, sincerity making her voice catch.  
Abalin looked away, shying from her touch. It stung more than she could have said, but she stepped back.   
She turned towards the officers at the table behind her. “Notify all personnel. We leave for Deiene immediately.” 


	18. Chapter 18

Leia was the last one into the shuttle. As soon as she took her seat, the rattle and hum of the engines coalesced to a roar. Opposite her, through the window above Hux and Abalin’s heads, she saw the _Perpetua’s_ hangar fall away. A second shuttle hovered beside them, carrying Poe, Olivine—the Resistance’s lead medic—and the rest of the landing party. In another moment, the view through the window stretched and distorted into a glimmer of blue as they jumped to hyperspace.  
She glanced to Rey, sitting between Finn and Leia. She was holding the hilt of Luke’s lightsaber (Rey’s now, Leia reminded herself) in her lap, tracing its contours as if it brought her some measure of calm.  
The sight of it reminded her of something she’d forgotten to do. “Ben, I have something of yours…” Leia reached into a small utility bag at her side. Opening it, she withdrew Abalin’s lightsaber. She held it in her palm for a moment, trying not to wince at the unnatural coldness radiating off of its surface, then offered it to him. He took it and quickly clipped it to his belt, letting his tunic fall forward so it was out of sight.  
Leia hesitated, looking between Abalin and Hux. Then she pulled Hux’s blaster from the bag and held it out. Unlike Abalin, Hux met her eyes as he reached for it. At the last moment, she pulled it back again.  
“Do not give me a reason to regret this,” she said.  
“I wouldn’t dream of it, General Organa,” Hux said smoothly. After another split second of indecision, she handed the blaster to him.  
“It doesn’t seem to work,” she said, “but I’m assuming that’s because it’s locked somehow.”  
“You tried to use it?”  
“Obviously. I wouldn’t be giving it back to you if I could make it work. It’s a damn nice blaster.”  
Hux’s mouth twitched into a smirk. “Coded to my fingerprint. It won’t fire for anyone else.”   
“Ah.” She considered this and then gave an approving nod. “Smart.”  
Finn seemed to finally reach a boiling point. “You’re giving him a blaster?” he blurted. “Abalin, fine, I get it. But him? How do you know he’s not going to murder all of us in this shuttle? Or—take Rey hostage?” He was looking at Leia as if she’d betrayed him. “How can you possibly trust him?”  
Leia glanced to Hux, who met her gaze with raised brows. She looked back at him steadily before turning to Finn. “I don’t think there’s anything to worry about,” she said.   
Finn let out a huff and sunk lower into his seat. “I hope you’re right,” he muttered darkly.  
They spent only a few minutes in hyperspace. As Deiene appeared below them, Leia turned to Abalin. “When will you need us?”  
“As soon as the Ren know I won’t go with them willingly.” He held Leia’s eyes as he spoke. “I can maintain the lie that Rey and I are alone until the Resistance is ready to engage.”  
“We’ve identified a location that will be easy to defend. We’ll leave you and Rey there. Finn, you and Poe will coordinate the ground squads to cover them while they deal with the Ren.” She paused. “But we don’t want to give away our position too early, or we’ll be overrun by the Order. We’ll need a signal for this to work.”   
Abalin looked at Hux, who seemed to understand immediately. Leia was reminded, as she often was, of the bond she sensed between them. After she’d become aware of it in their first few days on the _Perpetua_ , she saw it all the time in the quick glances between them and the seamless way they seemed to arrive at the same conclusions without ever exchanging a word.  
“I’ll need to be close,” Hux said shortly.  
Leia nodded. “I’ll stay with the shuttle. We’ll come get you as soon as it’s safe.”  
“Wait—” Finn looked between Leia and Hux. “What’s the signal?”  
“General Hux will handle that,” Leia said. “Everyone get prepped for landing. We have one shot at this.”


	19. Chapter 19

The canyon was almost perfectly circular, its slopes steep and dotted with scree. Abalin and Rey strode forward to take their place on the canyon’s floor. As they walked, Rey touched the comm set nestled in her ear, listening for the faint, reassuring buzz of static.  
Poe, Finn, Hux, and the others had remained on the cliffs above. They melted away into the thick shadows of the trees on the rim just as the black shuttle that had once belonged to Abalin appeared in the sky.  
It landed not far from Abalin and Rey. The wind whipped their robes around them as the shuttle settled onto the rocky ground. A walkway descended, and two figures swiftly approached them.  
“Ghodous and Vaelys,” Abalin murmured to Rey.   
Just behind the Ren shuttle, a second ship—a blocky, black-plated carrier—touched down. As its door opened, neat rows of stormtroopers filed out of it, quickly forming a ring with Ghodous, Vaelys, Abalin, and Rey at its center.   
Rey tensed as the stormtroopers surrounded them. Once the Ren drew within earshot, Ghodous called out, “You were expecting us.”  
Abalin’s eyes were fixed on Ghodous. “I knew Snoke would send you.”  
“We are not here to kill you, Master Kylo. Nor you, Rey,” Ghodous said, looking to her. “Come with us willingly, and no blood will be shed.”  
“We’re not coming with you,” Rey snarled.   
Ghodous regarded her, his eyes keen and probing. “Where is the general?”  
“Leave us,” Abalin spat, “or I’ll kill you both.”  
Ghodous looked at him evenly. When he spoke again, his tone was softer. “Master Kylo, think rationally for a moment. You know that I am not your enemy. Whatever promises of safe haven the Resistance has offered you, it is only part of their political game. General Hux will meet a cruel fate when he is taken to the New Republic.” Ghodous took a measured step towards them, keeping his eyes locked on Abalin’s. “Leave peacefully with us and I swear to you that General Hux’s death will be swift and clean by my hand. He will not suffer.”   
Abalin did not answer. Rey couldn’t believe that Abalin would consider Ghodous’s terms, but the biting refusal she expected from him did not come. Growing worried, Rey glanced at Abalin in the ensuing silence.   
In response, Abalin’s voice came through clearly and sharply into her mind: _Get ready_.  
Her hand tightened around the hilt of her lightsaber. When she heard him again, he seemed to be projecting far beyond her, up to the rim of the canyon.   
_Now_.  
A rain of blaster fire suddenly pelted down across the floor of the ravine, and the neat circle of stormtroopers dissolved into chaos. Vaelys lunged towards Abalin, while Ghodous darted forward to meet Rey. He ignited his saber and a sleek, nearly silent blade of iridescent blue-black erupted from the hilt. On every side, stormtroopers hit by blaster shots began to drop as Ghodous’s saber struck against Rey’s. 


	20. Chapter 20

Hux crouched at the canyon’s rim, blaster leveled at the stormtroopers below. Finn was beside him, and Poe was nearby. Other Resistance fighters were positioned strategically around the gorge. Hux had repeated Abalin’s cue to Finn, who repeated it into his headset, and in perfect synchronization the whole rim had come alive with blaster fire aimed into the canyon.   
The first wave of stormtroopers fell before they had time to realize where the blaster bolts were coming from. Hux fired three more times before he was spotted, and he ducked behind a boulder for cover.  
Most of the stormtroopers quickly scrambled into the brush on the edges of the ravine, and many had started to climb the slopes towards the crest of the canyon. They were easy targets then, and Hux continuously scanned the opposite half of the canyon for any that were drawing too close to the summit. He saw the blue flash of blaster shots landing on the slope below him and trusted that the Resistance fighters on the other side were doing the same.  
There were a handful of troopers that had not moved from the gorge; those assigned as personal guards to the Ren, Hux assumed. One of them, hidden behind a tumble of rocks, had fired twice towards Rey, although she was too caught up in her fight with Ghodous to have noticed. Hux had a clear view of him, but Abalin was directly in the way.  
Some of Abalin’s adrenaline spilled into his own thoughts as soon as Hux reached out to him. _Move a few meters to your left.  
_ Abalin’s voice sounded perplexed, although Hux could see that he didn’t miss a step in his duel with Vaelys. _What?  
_ _You’re blocking my shot.  
_ Hux watched as Abalin cast a quick sideways glance to his left, gauging the space, then swung around to Vaelys’s side. He drove her back in a series of swift, decisive steps, leaving plenty of space between him and the stormtrooper he couldn’t see.  
_Thank you_ , Hux said calmly, and squeezed the trigger. His target collapsed to the ground. Abalin must have heard the stormtrooper’s yell, because Hux felt him spare a moment to be impressed.  
“How does the western side look?” Hux asked Finn as they both paused to recharge their blasters.  
“Clearing up. But we better move fast. There are probably reinforcements not far away.”  
A blaster bolt suddenly sliced the air between Finn and Hux, carving a fist-sized chunk out of the boulder just behind them. Hux froze, watching smoke rise from the divot in the rock. The shot hadn’t come from below them. His gaze snapped to the opposite side of the canyon.  
“Get down,” Hux hissed, shoving his elbow into Finn’s chest to push him to the ground.  
Finn got as far as drawing a breath to protest when another white-hot bolt flew above them, boring into the stone at their backs. He dropped to a crouch alongside Hux. “What the hell was that?”  
“It seems we’re not alone up here,” Hux said tersely.  
Finn glanced at the smoldering rock above them and then back to Hux. “That’s not from a standard stormtrooper unit.”  
“Precision rangetroopers.” Another blaster shot sent small chunks of stone crumbling down on them, this one fired from the north. “And we’re surrounded.”  
Poe had ducked behind a tree trunk when the sniper shots began. Glancing at Hux and Finn from behind it, he demanded, “When did they get up here?”   
“Probably climbed up the other side of the slope while we were focused on the stormtroopers,” Finn replied.  
Just above Poe’s head, another bolt took off the bark of the tree he was using for cover.  
“No way we’re going to be able to get rid of them from here. We’ll never get them in range.” Poe looked to Hux. “We’ve gotta get Rey and Abalin out of that canyon.”  
“So they can be pinned up here with us?” Hux snapped. He shook his head, his eyes darting along the lip of the canyon opposite them. “We have to clear out the snipers before we can be extracted.”  
Poe cautiously took a step out from the tree as he leveled his blaster at the remaining stormtroopers in the ravine. He fired and started to swing back behind the tree as he said, “And how do you propose we—”  
Before Poe could finish his sentence, there was the pop of a distant rifle, and a bloom of scarlet appeared suddenly on Poe’s shirt.


	21. Chapter 21

Rey steeled herself as Ghodous’s lightsaber flashed towards her. She saw the calm determination in his eyes and knew he could sense her fear. But as she fought back her nerves, she quickly found herself starting to gain an advantage, forcing Ghodous back so that he had to navigate around a fallen stormtrooper before he could get his feet under him to attack again.  
“Rey, what he’s told you about Leader Snoke isn’t true,” Ghodous said in the first lull between strikes. He was holding his blade defensively in front of him. “Snoke can teach you to discover your true power, and you won’t have to abandon the Light. I didn’t.”  
A frown crossed her face as she reflexively reached into the Force, looking to see if Ghodous was telling the truth. To her shock, she found the Light in Ghodous, more strongly than she’d felt it in Abalin.  
Unnerved, she raised her saber to lunge again but mistepped at the last moment. She blocked the next few attacks, barely, and Ghodous finally landed his blade across the top of her shoulder. She couldn’t swallow a yell of pain as she stumbled back.  
Ghodous advanced on her. “You will not be asked to give up who you are, Rey,” he said softly.  
“Liar,” Rey snarled. She drew her saber back but before she launched forward again, she saw the expression on Ghodous’s face change as he caught sight of something over Rey’s shoulder. Whatever it was, it stopped him dead in his tracks.  
She whipped around to follow his gaze, looking to the escarpment above them. Though the figure was only a silhouette in the light of Deiene’s sun, Rey recognized who it was immediately. When she turned to Abalin, his eyes were fixed on the figure with nearly the same expression as Ghodous.  
“Luke Skywalker,” Vaelys breathed with awe in her voice.  
Rey spun to face the Ren. “And he’ll kill you where you stand,” she barked. “Leave now and you might survive to tell Snoke the story of seeing him.”  
A burst of shouts and a renewed peppering of blaster fire broke out as the stormtroopers took notice of Luke’s arrival. His lightsaber flashed in a blur of green as it fended off a volley of blaster shots.  
By the time she looked back at Vaelys and Ghodous, they were already retreating towards their shuttle.  
“They won’t even try to fight,” she said, surprised.   
“They’re more afraid of Luke than they are of Snoke,” Abalin said thinly, watching them go.   
Before she could say any more, there was a sudden, violent burst of static in her earpiece. She could just make out Finn’s voice, his words too garbled to understand. The only thing that came through clearly was the sound of his panic.  
“Finn? Finn, I—I can’t understand you.” Rey pressed on the earpiece, straining to hear him. “What’s happened?”  
_“Rey, come in. General Organa, anyone—we need help—trapped—losing blood—”  
_ “Finn,” Rey said, desperate. She turned to Abalin, knowing terror was plain on her face. “Something’s wrong.”  
Abalin turned away searchingly. “Dameron has been shot.”  
Rey’s breath caught in her throat. “What?”  
“The shuttle can’t reach them with snipers in the area. He doesn’t have much time.” He seemed to refocus on Rey’s face. “Go along the rim and kill the rangetroopers. Then we’ll be extracted along with the others. Can you do that?”  
“Yes, but—” Rey hesitated. “What will you do?”  
Abalin’s jaw set. He turned towards Luke and a fleeting emotion crossed his face, too quickly for Rey to comprehend. “Bring Luke with you. Tell him what happened,” he said.  
He pivoted on his heel and started to climb to the rim of the canyon.


	22. Chapter 22

Hux turned to find Abalin emerging from a dense stand of trees. He held a First Order sniper rifle at his side, and he offered it to Hux as he approached. “The west rim is clear,” he said brusquely. “I killed two on the way here. Rey and Luke will handle the rest.”   
Hux’s brow furrowed as he accepted the rifle. “Luke?”  
Abalin was already searching past Hux. “Where is he?”  
“Dameron has been moved to safety. Finn and Olivine are with him.”  
Abalin nodded. He began to step around Hux when Hux realized what he intended. He caught Abalin by the elbow and pulled him back. “Abalin, the wound…” He shook his head. “You can’t.”  
“I have to try.”  
Hux saw nothing but steady resolve in Abalin’s eyes. He hesitated briefly, then released his hold on Abalin’s elbow. “Follow me.”  
They ducked between huge boulders, maintaining cover as bolts from sniper rifles sporadically cracked through the silence around them. They reached a grotto carved away into a rocky slope, its ceiling so low they both were forced to crouch as they entered. The shallow cavern was claustrophobic enough on its own, but it was made worse with the many Resistance fighters huddled within.   
Hux pushed through the crowd with Abalin close behind him. They warily parted to reveal Poe on the ground, barely conscious.  
Olivine was bent over him, pressing a sheet of gauze firmly over the wound in Poe’s side. Blood quickly soaked through the gauze, and Olivine appeared to be growing desperate. Next to her, Finn clutched Poe’s hand.  
Abalin knelt beside Poe, opposite them. Olivine glanced up and snapped, “What do you think you’re doing?”  
Abalin ignored her, extending his hand over Poe’s torso. He lowered it until his fingers hovered just above the wound.  
“No,” Finn snarled, shoving Abalin’s hand away. “Get away from him. Get _away_.”  
“I can heal him,” Abalin said quietly.  
“Don’t touch him.” Finn curled over Poe, as if trying to shield him from Abalin. “I won’t let you. This—this is your fault.”  
Hux felt the pang of hurt in Abalin before it showed on Abalin’s face. “Finn,” Hux said sharply, “Without immediate assistance, Dameron will die. Abalin will do what he can until we arrange an extraction. If you want Dameron out of here as quickly as possible, Rey needs your help.”  
Hux caught Olivine’s eye. She hesitated, then said to Finn, “Go. I’ll stay with him.”  
Finn cast one last distrustful glance at Abalin, then swallowed and nodded. He got to his feet and followed Hux to the entrance of the grotto.  
Hux led Finn back to the lip of the ravine. He propped the muzzle of the sniper rifle on top of a boulder, bringing the scope to his eye and glassing the opposite side of the canyon. “Rey is clearing the rim so we can reach the shuttle,” he said. “Help her spot the remaining rangetroopers.”  
He expected a vitriolic response, but none came. When Hux glanced at Finn, he was looking back at him hollowly. He gave a short nod.   
“Where is Rey now?” Hux said.  
Finn repeated the question into his comm set and told Hux, “North rim.”  
He nodded, swinging the rifle towards the south. After switching from his blaster, he clipped a few shots high before he adjusted to the long-range rifle. By then, Finn had already guided Rey to two snipers. Finn pointed out another to Hux, which he dropped with a single shot.  
Before long, the blaster bolts from the rangetroopers had ceased. “That’s the last of them,” Hux said, pulling the rifle off the top of the boulder. “Tell Connix to bring the shuttle in and—”  
A bloodcurdling scream erupted from the cave.  
“Poe,” Finn breathed. He whipped around and began to scramble to his feet. Immediately, Hux heard Abalin’s voice in his mind, strained and low.   
_Keep Finn away.  
_ Abalin’s words seemed to echo as if they covered a vast distance before they reached Hux. He didn’t know exactly what would happen if Abalin’s concentration was broken, but he sensed that it would mean death—for Poe and maybe for Abalin as well.  
“Finn,” Hux barked, lunging after him. He caught Finn’s shoulder and pulled him back. “If you stop Abalin now, you will get Dameron killed—”  
Finn twisted from his grip and swung his fist into Hux’s face. Hux staggered backwards, blood rushing over his mouth as he uttered a vicious curse and pressed the back of his hand to his nose.   
With blood still streaming down his face, he met eyes with Rey as she stepped out from a thicket of trees. She looked bewildered but before she could say anything, he pointed after Finn, who was weaving through the boulders back to the grotto. “Stop him,” he shouted.  
Rey hesitated a moment before she broke into a run after Finn. As Hux followed, he saw her catch him near the entrance of the grotto, pushing him backwards. “Finn,” she said, cupping his face with one hand and holding a fistful of his jacket in the other. “I’m here. Stay with me.”  
Rey’s attention was drawn into the cave. She continued to clutch Finn tightly, but her eyes went wide as she caught sight of Abalin. Hux followed her gaze and saw a familiar blue glow emanating from Abalin’s hands, brighter than Hux had ever seen before. To Rey, he said, “Call in the shuttle and get Finn on board as soon as it arrives.”  
Rey nodded, only briefly looking away from Abalin.  
Hux went into the cave. Olivine had sat back, watching the exposed sinew of Poe’s wound reknitting itself with a mixture of fear and awe. In a muted tone, Hux said, “Prepare to move him,” and Olivine nodded and got to her feet.  
Moments later, the high-pitched screech of a ship’s thrusters echoed into the cave as the shuttle settled onto the canyon’s floor.  
Abalin leaned away from Poe. His hands dropped to his sides, and the blue light faded. Several Resistance members stepped around him as they lifted Poe, now unconscious, out of the cave and towards the waiting shuttle. Olivine rose and followed them. Abalin remained motionless.   
“Abalin, the shuttle is here, we should—Abalin?”   
Abalin’s half-lidded eyes flickered to him briefly as Hux knelt beside him. A trickle of blood dripped from his nose, strikingly red against the ghostly white of his face.  
Hux was momentarily stunned. “Can you stand?”  
Abalin swayed and Hux caught him. He pulled Abalin’s arm across his shoulders and lifted him to his feet. Abalin barely staggered along as Hux brought him to the mouth of the cave. He found Rey lingering outside, and she ran to help support Abalin as they brought him to the shuttle _._   
The gangway retracted behind them, and with a deafening blast, the ship lifted from the surface of Deiene. 


	23. Chapter 23

After Deiene, Leia had been quick to announce the next move: a transition to a planetside base. She’d chosen Akroma, a planet in the Outer Rim that had been an auxiliary base for years. Now, it would serve as the main headquarters for Resistance operations.  
Rey was helping the other Resistance personnel get the equipment and supplies unloaded from the _Perpetua._ She paused, setting down a crate and stretching out her aching muscles, when she caught sight of Luke.  
She had been separated from him as soon as the shuttles returned to the _Perpetua_ , and she’d been looking for him ever since. Now, he was engrossed in a conversation with Leia, one he did not seem to be enjoying.  
She hung back, watching them from a distance. She knew Leia had been overjoyed when Luke first appeared, but their talks had swiftly taken on a tension that left their voices low and clipped whenever they were together.  
When Leia walked away, Rey slowly drew up to Luke. “You came back,” she said.  
He gave a stiff nod. “You found your way back as well.”  
“How did you find us on Deiene?”  
“I sensed Leia needed my help.” He paused. “Which I thought would have to do with the fact that Kylo Ren was also on Deiene.”  
In the chaos of the battle, she’d barely had time to explain to Luke how Abalin had ended up fighting with the Resistance. It had only been a few days since she’d first encountered Abalin on the _Perpetua,_ but even so, the name Kylo Ren sounded jarring to her now.  
“Abalin, he’s...not the same,” Rey said carefully.   
“Abalin?” Luke repeated incredulously. “Is that what we’re calling him?”  
Rey was silent for several moments. “He’s not a part of the Knights of Ren anymore.”  
“Right. Of course. So now he’s Abalin.”  
“That’s his name,” Rey said, annoyed. “He fought against the Ren. And he made sure Snoke didn’t find the Resistance.”  
“He sure won you over quickly.”  
“You haven’t spoken to him, have you?”  
“No. And I don’t plan to.”  
She didn’t answer immediately. “Now that you’re here,” she said, “are you going to continue teaching me?”  
“I told you, I didn’t come here for you,” he said gruffly. “As far as I’m concerned, nothing’s changed since I left Ahch-To.”  
“But—” Rey broke off, for a moment too stunned to continue. “But everything has changed. We’re not on Ahch-To. Abalin is here, with us. And it’s even more important now that we stand against the First Order.”  
“And you’re still too stubborn to be a Jedi,” Luke replied. “You sound exactly like you did when you left Ahch-To. You haven’t mastered yourself.”  
Luke turned away, quickly vanishing into the central hub of the base. Rey watched him go, feeling suddenly alone in the pressing crowd.   
  
  
  


***  
  
  
  


“How are you feeling?” Rey asked.  
“Pretty good,” Poe said with a grin, stretching his arms over his head. His waist was wrapped with layers of white gauze, but the movement seemed to cause him no pain. “Really good, actually.” BB-8, hovering near Rey’s shins, chirped approvingly.  
Rey stared in surprise. “How is that possible?”  
“You two would know better than me. I don’t remember much.”  
“You were shot by a rangetrooper,” said Finn, facing Rey from across Poe’s bed. “I’ve never heard of anyone surviving that. Especially not a direct hit.”  
“Guess I’m lucky,” Poe said.  
“It wasn’t luck,” Olivine interrupted, appearing in the doorway. She crossed the room to check a reading on the screen beside Poe’s bed. “Abalin saved your life.”  
Rey frowned at her. “How?”   
Olivine shook her head. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”  
A silence fell over them.  
“Well,” Poe said, “good thing we had him around. I owe him one.”  
Finn’s hand found Poe’s and their fingers intertwined. “Me too.”   
Rey looked away, feeling as if she was intruding on an intimate moment between them. She stepped around Poe’s bed to lay a hand on Finn’s shoulder. He looked up at her and seemed to know immediately where she was going, giving her a brief nod.   
Abalin was unconscious just moments after they left Deiene’s atmosphere. Even now, days after the _Perpetua_ had arrived on Akroma, he hadn’t recovered.  
She left the medical wing, slipping quietly through the bustling halls. Olivine had mentioned that Abalin had been taken to a more secluded part of the base to receive care. After descending a staircase down to the lowest level of the compound, she reached an unmarked door and pressed a latch to open it.   
Before she got more than a few steps into the room, a sharp voice halted her. “What are you doing here?”   
Rey started, not expecting to find anyone else. “Hux,” she realized. “I came to see Abalin.”  
Hux approached her, cutting across the room until he stood between her and where Abalin lay. He had a narrow bandage over the bridge of his nose where Finn had struck him. “Why?”  
“I wanted to see if he was awake.”  
“He is being monitored by Resistance medical staff, inferior as they are. Your presence is not needed.”   
Bristling, she said, “Have I done something wrong?”  
He was silent, but his anger was clear in his face.   
“The battle is over,” she said, defensively. “Snoke won’t know where we’ve gone. We’re safe now.”   
“Abalin took a risk by letting you into his mind. He warned you. And you ignored him.”  
Rey said uneasily, “I was just trying to understand—”  
“And then, to undo your error, he deliberately made himself vulnerable to Snoke. Do you remotely comprehend how dangerous that was?”  
“I know—”  
“I assure you that you don’t.” Hux’s eyes bored into hers. “And in case that was not enough to demand of him, he gave the very last of his strength to save Commander Dameron’s life. None of which would have been necessary in the first place if you hadn’t thought yourself above heeding Abalin’s advice.”  
“I only wanted to see him,” Rey tried to break in, her voice wavering. “I know that I made a mistake—”  
“And while Abalin did all of that,” Hux went on, “what did you do?”  
Rey could feel her heart pounding. She stood in silence for several moments until she finally managed to say, “Nothing.”  
“Nothing. And now you come here for what, exactly? To inform him what he could have done better?”  
“No,” Rey said. “I…I came to apologize. I should have listened to him. And I should have been able to help.” She hesitated. “I really am sorry.”  
Hux continued to stare at her until she finally dropped her eyes, unable to hold his gaze any longer. “I’m sorry to both of you,” she said softly, then turned and left without another word.


	24. Chapter 24

Evening had settled over the base and Hux was as close to sleep as he would allow himself to get when the door opened again. He was immediately on his feet, expecting another unwelcome intrusion. He was startled to see Leia standing in the doorway.  
“General Organa,” he said, slow to recover from his surprise.  
“General Hux,” Leia responded as she approached him. “I’m told that you’ve been keeping a strict watch down here.” She raised an eyebrow. “You gave Rey quite a scare.”  
Hux’s lips pressed into a thin line, but he was silent.  
“May I see him?” she asked gently.   
Hux faltered, suddenly self-conscious of the defensive way he was standing over Abalin. He nodded and stepped aside.  
Leia walked past him and perched on the edge of Abalin’s bed. Hux turned away quickly when Leia glanced back at him.  
“When was the last time you got any sleep?” Leia said.  
“I’m fine.”  
“Olivine said he’s stable. He’s just catching up on some well-deserved rest. You don’t need to worry.”  
“I would prefer to stay here,” Hux said stiffly.  
Leia looked back to Abalin, brushing a lock of hair from his forehead. “Ben is lucky to have you,” she murmured. “I don’t know what you did to bring him back to me, but I’m more grateful than you would want me to say.”  
Hux looked away from her pointedly. “You should know that was never my intention.”  
“I think that’s the only reason it worked.”  
Hux couldn’t answer.  
Leia’s eyes lingered on Abalin for a few more moments before she rose from the bed. “Well, Brendol,” she said, heading back towards the door, “if you need some rest or a cigarette, come find me. In the meantime, I’ll make sure no one else bothers you down here.” She paused. “And by the way, I’m still supposed to have guards on you two, which I don’t. Please don’t do anything nefarious or you’ll make me look bad.”  
Hux nodded mutely as Leia left the room, the door closing behind her. He let out a long breath, settling back into his seat at Abalin’s side.   
  
  
  


***  
  
  
  


It wasn’t until late the next morning that Abalin woke. Hux started from a doze when Abalin said his name.   
Relief washed over Hux. “You’re awake.”  
Abalin blinked owlishly. “Where am I?”  
“We’re on the planet Akroma, an auxiliary Resistance base. You’ve been asleep since we left Deiene nearly two days ago.”  
Abalin winced as he pushed himself upright. He looked Hux over and said, “Have you been here the whole time?”  
Hux frowned. “No.”  
A smile pulled at Abalin’s mouth. “You have.” He paused, studying Hux. “What are you wearing?”  
Hux glanced down at his dark blue jacket, ribbed with gray. “Courtesy of your mother,” he said dryly, and nodded to a bundle of clothes on a chair in the corner. “Those are for you.”  
Abalin nodded, eyeing the maroon vest on top of the pile warily.  
“She’s set aside quarters for us,” Hux added, “although by the state of this base I can’t imagine it will be much of an improvement from the _Perpetua’s_ brig.” He rose to his feet. “We should inform the others that you’re awake.”  
“Wait,” Abalin said, taking Hux’s hand. “Is Luke here?”  
“Skywalker,” Hux said, and Abalin nodded. “Yes. He’s with General Organa.”  
Abalin’s eyes flickered.  
“He’s your uncle?”  
“Yes,” Abalin said, quiet.  
Hux studied him closely, but did not reply. He helped Abalin from the bed, letting Abalin lean on him as they started towards the main level of the compound.


	25. Chapter 25

It took another day for Abalin to work up the nerve to talk to Luke. He’d caught Leia and asked her, haltingly, if she’d be willing to set up a meeting with him.  
“I know he doesn’t want to speak to me,” Abalin told Leia quietly, “but...tell him I have something important to give him.”  
Even after Leia had assured him it was all arranged, Abalin was still surprised when Luke appeared in the doorway.  
“I’m only here because Leia asked me to see you,” Luke said coldly, taking a few strides into the room. “What do you want?”  
Abalin pulled the holocron from the pocket of his vest and set it on the table between them.  
“What is that?”  
“The holocron that Snoke sent me to find,” Abalin said. He leaned back away from it, eyeing it instead of looking at Luke. “I brought it with me from the _Finalizer._ He doesn’t know I have it.”  
“And you’re—what, exactly? Giving it to me out of the goodness of your heart?”  
“Snoke wanted it,” Abalin said tonelessly. “I don’t know why. There must be something valuable on it. But I haven’t opened it.”  
“Why not?”  
Abalin hesitated. “Because I don’t know how to use it.” His eyes flickered up to Luke, gauging him, and then away again. “And I’m worried that if I did find whatever Snoke wanted from it, he would know.”  
He felt Luke staring at him for what seemed like a long time. “And you expect me to believe that?”  
Abalin faltered. “What?”  
“You’re trying to convince me that you’re just handing over this Sith artifact that Snoke sent you to find, and you conveniently can’t open it?”  
“I haven’t tried to open it.”  
“Ah. So you don’t know what will happen once it’s unlocked. You’re just hoping that whatever Sith protections are on it will kill me instead of you.”  
“No. I—” Abalin closed his eyes for a moment. “The Sith protections were only to keep us from getting to the holocron. There’s nothing dangerous about the holocron itself. As far as I know.”  
“As far as you know.”  
“Yes,” Abalin said, with a note of desperation creeping into his voice. “The holocron was important enough to Snoke that he sent the Ren to get it. Someone should open it. And I...I don’t think it should be me.”  
“How noble of you,” Luke sneered. “But I’m not buying it. Because, correct me if I’m wrong, that’s the same holocron you used to connect to Rey.”  
Abalin paused. “Yes, but I didn’t know that would—”  
“And the same holocron you used to connect to me.”  
“Yes.”  
“So besides planning to murder us, you also used this holocron to massacre an entire village of innocent people. But now, according to you, you’ve _reformed_. Now you’ve come back to the Light.”  
“There might be something on this that will help us kill Snoke,” Abalin said. “That’s all I was trying to say.”  
“And you want to kill Snoke. Is that it?”  
“Yes,” Abalin said, his voice falling.   
“Right.” Luke’s eyes narrowed. “Somehow you seem to have convinced everyone else of that. But not me. You know why? Because I don’t think Snoke was ever really the problem. I think there’s always been something wrong with you. I think you’ve been poison since you were born.”  
Abalin was shaking his head but Luke went on unabated.  
“So everyone else can say it was Snoke like that somehow makes it all right for you to be here now. But I’ve seen who you really are. We both know you made every choice on your own. Everyone you hurt. Everyone you killed. From those children at my academy to your own father. My best friend.”  
Luke’s voice finally broke. “Your own father, Ben. How could you come back here and expect anyone to forgive you, especially your mother?” He shook his head, his face contorting in disgust. “You’ll never be able to pay for what you’ve done.”  
Abalin stood abruptly, pushing past Luke. He started to leave the room and then stopped dead, his breath giving out. Rey was standing in the door.  
She met his eyes briefly and then looked away. Ducking her head, she stepped out of the doorway mutely to let him pass.  
Abalin fled, dizzy and unable to hear anything past the pounding in his ears. He half-walked, half-stumbled out of the compound and onto the grounds, losing himself instantly in the pathless forest beyond the base. Eventually, once the last of the buildings were well out of sight behind him, he let himself sink to the ground.  
He had no idea when he had started crying but suddenly he couldn’t breathe, his lungs seizing in painfully shallow gasps. Blackness closed in around the outer edges of his vision. Every time he closed his eyes he saw the hatred in Luke’s face, the new weight of fear in Rey’s; the sadness in his mother’s eyes whenever she looked at him.  
His mind started to race, tripping over itself desperately—if he started walking now he could find a way off the planet and disappear, find some uninhabited rock where he could at least keep himself from hurting anyone else like he was bound to do if he stayed—  
But that would mean leaving Hux behind. Hux, who had stayed beside him in the days following Deiene; who had sheltered Abalin in his mind, risking himself to Snoke. Hux who now looked at Abalin with such fierce devotion that Abalin could not feel unsafe.  
Gradually, he felt his heartbeat slow, the tightness in his chest lessen bit by bit. He didn’t know how long he sat there, focusing on each individual breath.  
The sound of snapping underbrush startled him. He turned and found himself looking into Leia’s eyes.   
“Ben?” she said, concerned. “What are you doing out here?”  
Abalin couldn’t find his voice.   
She came closer, sinking to the ground beside him. “Are you all right?”  
He managed to say, “I wanted to apologize.”  
“Ben, you don’t need to—”  
“Please.” Abalin reached for her hands, forcing himself to meet her gaze. “There’s so much I need to tell you. I just—I haven’t been able to.” He swallowed thickly. “I know that I can’t change what I did. I can’t ask you to forgive me. Luke is right.”  
Leia’s brow furrowed. “What did Luke say?”  
Abalin couldn’t stop the tears from falling down his face. “He said that I shouldn’t have come back. That I don’t deserve your forgiveness.”  
“Ben—” Leia drew in a breath. “You don’t think for a second that I agree with him, do you?”  
Abalin’s eyes flickered up to hers and then away again.  
She shook her head. “Luke and I…” She trailed off and seemed to take a moment to compose herself. “We haven’t exactly been seeing eye to eye since he came back. Not least because I won’t listen to him talk about you like that.”  
Abalin was silent for a long time. “I don’t know how you can even stand to look at me,” he said hollowly. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for everything.”  
She gently ran her hand through his hair, brushing it from his eyes. “When I had that dream and you were asking me to come find you, I was afraid to believe it was actually you. I had dreamed about you so many times before, always hoping that you would come back to me.” She smiled and squeezed his hands, tears shining in her eyes. “But that time, I knew it was real.”  
Abalin couldn’t hold back a sob, and Leia pulled him close. He laid his head against her chest as she hugged him tightly. Her warmth surrounded him, and her forgiveness was at the front of her mind, so plain and unconditional.  
“You’re my son,” she said. “That’s all there is to it. I love you.”  
Abalin started to pull away, but she held onto his elbows. Drawing shaking breaths, he blurted, “You were the last thing he thought of.”  
There was a slight pinch in Leia’s brow, but she was silent.  
Abalin fought through the tightness in his throat. “He wanted to tell you that he was sorry. But mostly that he still loved you. And always had.”  
Softly, Leia said, “Ben.”  
He shook his head, twitching backwards away from her. “I’ve just wanted to tell you.”   
Leia murmured, quiet but clear, “You know he forgave you.”  
Abalin’s breath caught, because he’d seen that in Han’s mind—of course he had—before Han fell. Abalin had buried it so deeply, far deeper than the guilt, knowing he could never be deserving of such a mercy. They sat in silence for a long time, both of them missing him, a grief they’d denied in each other’s presence until now.  
Eventually, Leia straightened and said, “There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.”  
Abalin lifted his head and looked at her, apprehensive.  
“Why is everyone calling you Abalin? You hated that name.”  
Abalin breathed a weak laugh. “It’s a long story.”  
Leia stood and held out a hand to help Abalin to his feet. Together, they started the walk back to the base.


	26. Chapter 26

Leia was speaking to Hux in the command room, the two of them engaged in an involved debate while a holo map of a star system revolved between them. Abalin was lingering nearby when a hand touched his elbow.  
He turned in surprise and found Rey stepping back hurriedly. “Can I talk to you?” she asked.  
Abalin glanced over his shoulder at Hux and Leia, neither of whom had noticed Rey’s arrival. He gave a short nod and let her lead him into a quieter corridor.  
She wheeled around to face him. “I thought about what Luke said.” Her eyes were fixed intently on him. “But I don’t think he’s right about you.”  
Abalin didn’t reply.   
“I don’t believe you would have done all that if not for Snoke. And you’re different now.” She waited until he met her gaze before she went on. “You saved Poe’s life on Deiene. And I...I couldn’t do anything to help. So I want you to teach me to heal.”  
Abalin drew back in surprise. “But Luke is here now. Aren’t you training with him?”  
Rey scowled. “He was pretty clear that he doesn’t want anything more to do with me.”  
“What do you mean?”  
“He told me that I couldn’t be a Jedi. That I’d been a waste of his time.” She gave a small shrug. “That’s why I came back to the _Perpetua_.”  
Abalin hesitated, a frown gradually deepening on his face. Slowly, he said, “I don’t know if it’s a good idea for me to teach you.”  
A flash of annoyance crossed Rey’s expression, but it faded quickly. She gave a stiff nod. “I thought you’d say that,” she said.  
She had started to turn away by the time Abalin found his voice again. “Rey.” When she faced him, he said, “You’re sure about this. You want me to teach you.”  
“Yes.”  
He let out a long breath. “All right. I can show you how to heal.”  
She brightened. “Really?”  
Avoiding her eyes, he nodded.  
Her face split into a wide smile. “How soon can we start?”  
“Whenever you want.”  
“Now,” Rey replied. “I know the perfect place.”  
She led Abalin out of the building and into the forests that surrounded the base. Soon the sounds of the compound—voices, the constant drone of machinery, idling engines in the hangars—faded behind the rustling of the wind in the trees.  
They came into a clearing and the land split before them, cut through by a wide stream that weaved over fallen logs and boulders. Rey leapt from the grassy bank onto a large, flat stone that rose above the rushing water, then onto another one beyond it until she was looking at Abalin from the middle of the stream.  
Abalin lingered on the bank while Rey settled into a cross-legged position. He watched as she leaned down to dip her hand into the stream, twisting her fingers through the current. “Have you meditated in the Force without Luke?”  
“Sometimes.”  
“You should do it every day.”  
Rey’s expression soured. “Luke instructed me to meditate whenever I did something wrong.”  
“Meditation isn’t punishment,” Abalin said gently.  
She glanced at him, puzzled. “What does it have to do with healing?”  
“You need to be able to focus your entire being in the Force. Meditation will give you that focus.”  
Rey was quiet, a crease between her brows.  
He didn’t go on immediately, trying to find a way to explain. “Through the Force, you have to create a bridge from yourself to the injured person. That will let you transfer enough of your own energy to replace what has been lost from the wound. The energy that you transfer is what has the power to heal.”  
“So,” Rey said slowly, “the more serious the wound, the more energy you need to heal it?”  
Abalin nodded. “Give too little and nothing will happen.”  
“Give too much…?”  
“Nothing good.”  
Rey considered this, watching the water flow around her. “How can you know what is enough?”  
“When your energies in the Force are joined, you’ll share in the pain from the wound. That pain is what I use to...measure.”  
Abalin could see in her expression that she was thinking through this information. “That almost makes sense,” she said finally.  
An apologetic smile flickered across his face. “I’ve never had to explain it to anyone before.”  
She looked up at him curiously. “Did you teach yourself?”  
“Yes. Recently.”  
“For who?”  
He glanced away, growing uneasy. “Hux. He was the first one I healed besides myself.”  
She looked surprised. “Why did he need healing?”  
He stammered briefly, remembering the bruise he’d left on Hux’s neck all those months ago. How Hux’s insistence had been the only reason he’d bothered to try, before he even knew if it was possible for him to heal another person.  
“Just...small injuries,” he said, lamely. After a pause, he added, “But the worst was when we left the _Finalizer_. Snoke had broken a few of his ribs. That was the most severe injury I’ve tried to heal. Until Dameron.”  
Rey regarded him closely. “Was Poe already dying when you began to heal him?”  
Abalin hesitated. “I’m not sure. There wasn’t time to think about that.”  
Rey was watching him, trying to recapture his gaze as much as he was trying to avoid hers. “Finn’s very grateful,” she said, more softly. “We all are.”  
Abalin dropped his eyes. Somewhat brusquely, he went on, “We’ll start simple. It’s easier to heal yourself than someone else. Your injury from Ghodous.”  
Rey nodded and gingerly unwrapped the thin layer of gauze from her shoulder.  
“Close your eyes,” Abalin said quietly, “and breathe.”  
Rey obeyed. Straightening her spine and resting the backs of her hands on her knees, she became the picture of a traditional Jedi. Her chest rose and fell evenly and, eventually, her face became free of tension.   
“Put your hand over the wound. Press on it until it hurts. If you lose your hold on the Force because of the pain, you won’t be able to heal.”  
She nodded. Subtly, a muscle in her upper arm twinged as she pressed. Abalin saw the slightest pinch in her expression, but her focus did not waver.  
“Good,” he said. “Pay attention to what the pain takes from you.”  
He was patient as she experimentally pushed her tolerance. Eventually, she seemed able to control the pain. Even as her knuckles turned white from the pressure she applied on her wound, there was no strain in her face.  
“Now,” Abalin breathed, “reach out to the Force. Guide it and let it fill the wound.”  
Abalin felt the slightest tremor around him as Rey followed his instruction. “How will I know when the Force begins to heal?” Rey asked.  
“You’ll know,” Abalin said simply. “Concentrate.”   
Her brow furrowed as she exerted herself, and Abalin remained watchfully silent to avoid distracting her.  
She slumped abruptly. “I can’t do it,” she sighed, opening her eyes. “Every time I try to use the Force, the pain comes back and I have to start again.” She dropped her chin into her hands. “I’m sorry I wasted your time.”  
Abalin gave a thin smile. “Did you expect to get it on the first try?”  
Rey looked insulted. “Well...yes,” she said, hesitantly.  
“It took me years to understand how to heal myself. Even now, it can be difficult. You’re only just beginning.”  
She nodded and opened her mouth to say something more, but stopped herself.  
He frowned. “Is something wrong?”  
“No, I’m just…surprised.” Rey paused. “At you.” She looked at him more closely. “Abalin, you still haven’t told me. Why did you leave the Order?”  
He took several moments to answer. “At the Battle of Naydra, Snoke blamed Hux for the loss and commanded me to kill him.” He fell silent briefly. “I left and took Hux with me.”  
“You saved him,” she said quietly.  
His voice was level. “It was the only thing I could do.”  
“How did you get away from Snoke?”  
“I used the Light to blind him. I hid us until we were far enough away from the _Finalizer_ that he couldn’t track us. We were on the _Perpetua_ when Snoke finally found me.”  
Rey didn’t answer, and after another few moments of silence, he got to his feet. “You can practice on your own now that you understand the technique.”  
She looked doubtful. “I’ll try.”  
“You’ll get it.” He gave her a brief, encouraging nod. “Don’t push yourself. Find me if you need help.”  
Rey nodded. “All right,” she said. He felt her watching him as he started to make his way back to the compound.


	27. Chapter 27

Narrow exterior walkways, suspended several stories above the ground, ran the perimeter of most of the buildings in the compound. Hux had taken to wandering them whenever he wanted to get out of the irritating, perpetual chaos of the Resistance base. Many of the walkways connected across buildings and they formed an aerial labyrinth miles long across the complex. Despite that, he wasn’t surprised to see Abalin walking towards him as if he’d known exactly where Hux would be.  
Hux cast a short glance at Abalin as he leaned on the railing beside him. “Where have you been?” he said mildly. “I haven’t seen you for hours.”  
“Rey asked me to teach her how to heal.”  
Hux paused, looking at Abalin to gauge his expression. “And how did that go?”  
“Fine,” Abalin returned. “I think.”  
Hux arched a brow. “She didn’t try to murder you this time?”  
“No,” he mumbled, and then hesitated. “Do you remember the first time I healed you?”  
Hux frowned. “Vaguely. Why?”  
Abalin’s face twitched into a small smile. “Nothing.”  
A silence fell between them. Hux pulled a silver case from his pocket and extracted a cigarette. He lit it, cupping his hand to block the wind, and inhaled slowly. “Most everything about our accommodations here are certifiably awful,” he mused. “But I’ll admit the Resistance has better cigarettes than I would have expected.”  
When he turned back towards Abalin, he was staring at Hux with the flickering look in his eyes that Hux hadn’t seen since they were on the _Finalizer.  
_ Abalin glanced down the length of the walkway to make sure they were alone, then stepped behind Hux and wrapped his arms around Hux’s waist, holding Hux too closely against him and breathing in as he pressed his face to Hux’s neck. Slowly, Hux let his hand fall until his wrist was propped on the railing, smoke trailing from the cigarette between his fingers.  
_Come with me to our quarters_ , Abalin’s voice murmured.  
_Why?  
_ A split-second flash of irritation. _Now.  
_ There was a familiar impatience in Abalin’s tone. “Fine,” Hux said, silkily, stubbing out the cigarette against the rail and following behind Abalin as he led them to their room.  
They were barely inside the door when Abalin caught Hux’s waist in a tight grip and pushed him up against the wall. He kissed Hux fiercely and all at once Hux realized how badly he had missed the taste of Abalin. He tried to remember how long it had been. Rivulon. A lifetime ago.  
Hux paused, turning his head. Undeterred, Abalin moved his lips to Hux’s jawline, then his neck.  
“Abalin,” Hux breathed.  
“What?” Abalin said disinterestedly, pulling at the hem of Hux’s shirt so he could slide his hands beneath it.  
Hux caught his wrists and held them, Abalin’s palms pressed to Hux’s stomach. Carefully, Hux said, “I’m not sure that we should.”  
Abalin gave a derisive huff. “If you don’t want to fuck me, you can just say so.” He ground his hips forward and Hux’s eyes fell closed as he drew an involuntary breath. “But you’re not being very convincing.”  
He didn’t answer, pressing himself flat against the wall in a vain effort to put some distance between his body and Abalin’s.  
Abalin finally brought his face up to Hux’s, his eyes flashing. “What is it?”  
“I just…” He trailed off and then closed his mouth abruptly.  
With a guttural sound of frustration, Abalin pressed his fingertips to the side of Hux’s face, pushing irreverently into his mind. Before Hux could hide it, Abalin found the root of his hesitance and dragged it forward.  
A broad landscape, full of flat light and the scent of rain, colorless grasses rippling away into the distance. The exterior of a rusted jumpship. In front of it, Abalin, slumping. A vivid streak of blood spilling from the corner of Abalin’s mouth. Hux closed his eyes, as if that would help, while in his memory his fist connected with Abalin’s temple and sent him sprawling to the ground.  
Abalin said nothing as he withdrew from Hux’s mind. Hux had his eyes fixed to a corner of the room, a muscle in his jaw twitching.  
Hux couldn’t tolerate the silence for more than a few seconds. “After we left the _Finalizer_ , I was cruel to you,” he said shortly. “I wanted to apologize.”  
“I wasn’t angry.”  
“You should have been.”  
Abalin hadn’t let go of Hux’s waist. “What does this have to do with anything?”  
Hux let out an irritated breath. After a few moments, he said stiffly, “I don’t want to hurt you again.”  
Abalin gently brushed his fingers through Hux’s hair. “I’d rather you didn’t worry about that,” he murmured, his hand drifting towards Hux’s belt buckle. He kissed Hux again, slower and softer, until the rigidity of Hux’s body began to yield.  
Gradually, he deepened the kiss until Hux’s lips parted to let Abalin’s tongue press into his mouth. He pushed Hux against the wall a little harder and Hux breathed in sharply.  
Once again, Hux felt Abalin’s presence brush against his mind, this time skimming lightly over his thoughts in the present. A knowing smile touched Abalin’s mouth. “You do want to fuck me.”  
“I—” Hux was trying to hide how short his breathing had become. “You are infuriating,” he managed.  
Abalin’s smile widened and he kissed Hux again, and this time Hux didn’t try to fight him. He pulled Hux off the wall and they dragged each other to the bed, breaking from their kiss only to pare through the layers of each other’s clothes until they reached skin. Abalin leaned back onto the bed, pulling Hux on top of him and spreading his legs so Hux lay between them.  
A broken moan spilled from his mouth as he took Hux inside him. Hux’s fingers trailed over Abalin’s chest, lingering for a moment before he started to roll his hips. Abalin gave a rising whimper and Hux lay down over him, promptly forgetting to be gentle, listening to Abalin’s breath disintegrate into ragged gasps. He traced over the soft fullness of Abalin’s open lips, and Abalin turned towards him to let Hux’s fingertips glide over his tongue.  
The heat of Abalin’s body became unbearable. “Come inside me,” Abalin breathed. His eyes were closed and he arched under Hux, panting as Hux rocked into him. “Please.”  
Abalin spilled over his stomach before Hux even touched his cock. With his face pressed close to Abalin’s, Hux followed, shuddering through each movement. Abalin held Hux tightly, his palm against the back of Hux’s head while they slowly came back to themselves.  
He withdrew from Abalin, pressing a lingering kiss to his mouth as he did. The moment Hux laid down beside Abalin, he pulled Hux tightly against him, settling his head on Hux’s chest with a sigh.   
Gently, Hux reached out to Abalin through their bond. He found a warm, pleasantly heavy feeling of contentment blanketing Abalin’s thoughts. With a flicker of surprise, he realized how much it calmed him, the weight of Abalin resting, unworried, against him. Hux drew his arms around Abalin and felt Abalin smile as he started to fall asleep.


	28. Chapter 28

Abalin hadn’t told Rey where they were going, but he seemed confident in their direction as he led them through the quiet forest. It was early morning, and mist twined through the branches of the trees. As they walked, the ground became gradually steeper. When Rey looked behind her, she found that their path had taken them up a steady rise, and they were now above the tops of the lowest trees.  
She was climbing over a massive fallen trunk when she realized there was a sort of dull roaring in her ears. She glanced around, unsure of the source and when she had begun to hear it. “What is that?”  
“You’ll see.”  
Rey scowled. Abalin continued ahead and Rey raced to catch up to him. The roar grew louder as they went on, the path becoming more pitched until it was nearly a vertical climb. She quickly found footholds in the rocky crag, lifting herself with ease. She smirked as she overtook Abalin, then continued upwards until she reached a crest of gray stone.  
She hauled herself up onto level ground. In front of her, a waterfall dropped precipitously into a cloud of mist. The roar was almost deafening here, as the water slipped by in a calm ribbon of silver and then plummeted over the rocky ledge. Beyond the waterfall, the sky was just beginning to warm to a rich shade of lilac, the trees on the horizon gilded in gold. Rey breathed a laugh and sprang forward, carefully balancing on the slick rock at the waterfall’s edge. She closed her eyes, feeling the mist on her face.  
She turned towards Abalin, beaming. “It’s beautiful,” she said.  
He gave a small smile as he caught up to her. “I thought you would like it.”  
“You found this place?”  
He nodded. “The river you brought us to. I followed it here.”  
Rey climbed down from her perch and they retreated a short distance so that they could hear each other more easily. “I thought we would practice with the sabers, to start,” Abalin said, once they found a clear space along the river.  
Rey frowned. “How will that help me learn to heal?”  
“It won’t. But it will help you next time we face the Ren.” He withdrew the hilt of his saber from his belt and considered it for a few moments. “Have you been saber training with Luke?”  
“I know how to fight. I don’t need lessons.”  
A thin smile twitched on Abalin’s face as he looked up at her. “Because you already beat me?”  
Rey held his eyes, silently daring him to say she was wrong.  
He shrugged and ignited his saber, the crackle of it at odds with the peaceful morning air. “Maybe you’re right and I have nothing to teach you,” he said. “It will be easy to find out.”  
Rey hesitated, but there was no malice in Abalin’s eyes. She reached for the hilt of her own saber, igniting the blue blade.  
They fell into opposing stances. He nodded at her as a signal to start and she lunged. He deflected easily, turning a circle so that he was behind her. She managed to whirl around and land her blade against his. He held her off until she pulled back and attempted another high lunge. Abalin ducked and in the same motion swung his foot out to catch her behind the knee, sending her sprawling to the ground in a cloud of dust. By the time she refocused her eyes, Abalin had his saber poised over her heart.  
For several moments, neither of them moved. Rey stared up at him, her eyes wide.  
“I was injured on Starkiller,” he said, “and the Ren were not trying to kill you on Deiene. It will be different next time.”  
He lifted the saber’s point off of her and held out a hand. She took it and he pulled her upright.  
“You leave your forward foot exposed,” he said. “Keep it closer under you and I won’t be able to do that.”  
Rey nodded stiffly and did not reply.  
He retreated a few steps, opening up a less intimidating distance between them. “You learned on a quarterstaff?”  
“Yes.”  
“You carry it over well.”  
“What does this have to do with learning to fight the Ren?” Rey asked, testily.  
“I’m getting there.” He paused. “When you make your own lightsaber, you can think about making a saber staff, with a blade on both ends.”  
Rey brightened, momentarily forgetting to be annoyed. “Really? I can make one like that?”  
Abalin glanced up at her. “Yes,” he said, with a slight smile. “But we don’t know when that will be,” he cautioned. “So it’s better to practice for the one you have now.” He raised his saber. “Again.”  
This time he let her fight longer, retreating and forcing her to advance, dodging or parrying her increasingly frustrated attacks. As her blade bound his, he suddenly pressed hard against her saber. Panicking, she threw her weight forward in retaliation. When he stepped out from under her, she stumbled and made an unbalanced thrust towards him. He turned her away neatly and halted the point of his saber short of her chin.  
“Good,” he said, and let up the blade.  
She sulked. “You don’t have to patronize me.”  
“I’m not.” Abalin turned from Rey, absently spinning his saber at his side. He took a deep breath and said, “The Ren fight by exploiting the weaknesses of their opponent. To survive, you need to guard your weaknesses. To win, you need to know theirs.”  
“So what are their weaknesses?”  
Almost languidly, Abalin raised his saber without stopping its momentum and brought it down towards Rey, allowing plenty of time for her to adjust and parry. “The two that were on Deiene, Vaelys and Ghodous. Vaelys knows more about the old ways of the Dark Side than almost anyone. But she...has an interest in you. She’ll try to talk to you. Look for a moment where she’s distracted.” Without stopping his half-speed attacks, he went on, “Ghodous knows the most about Jedi techniques. With him, think like a scavenger and not like a Jedi. He can’t anticipate that.”  
“Luke told me I couldn’t be a scavenger anymore if I was to be a Jedi.”  
Abalin halted his feigned lunge. He looked at her strangely, a softness in his expression that Rey hadn’t seen before. “That isn’t his decision to make,” he said quietly.  
Rey’s brow furrowed. Cautiously, she asked, “Why does Ghodous still have the Light, even though he’s one of the Ren?”  
“What do you mean?”  
“On Deiene, he told me I wouldn’t have to give up the Light if I joined Snoke. I thought he was lying, but...I saw it in him.”  
Abalin’s answer was careful. “Ghodous first learned to use the Force through the Light. He still has some access to it, but not the same way you do. It’s more like an illusion. There’s no strength in it.”  
Rey remembered, from their first attempt at a meld, all the times Snoke had whispered to Abalin—to Ben—that his Light was a shameful defect of which he must be broken. “Why does Snoke let him use it, even if it’s only an illusion?”  
Abalin seemed to easily read the intent of her question. “Because it doesn’t weaken him like it weakened me.”  
“The Light?”  
“Resisting the Light.” His eyes found hers. “He was lying. Snoke wouldn’t have let you keep it,” he said shortly.  
Rey nodded, sensing the discomfort she’d caused him. She held her saber in front of her. “Again,” she said.  
Abalin nodded and stepped towards her. “Irizar Ren was not on Deiene. I thought I killed him on Persei.” He hesitated. “But I’m not sure of that.”  
“In case he is alive?”  
“You’re stronger with the Force than him. But he’s an excellent fighter. Better than me.” Their speed picked up more quickly this time, although there was little weight to their attacks. “The only reason Irizar retreats is to see if you let your guard down. He’s—” He jerked backwards to avoid having her saber clip into his shoulder, taking two steps to regain his balance before he got his blade up again. “—relentless. If he does find you...don’t engage him, if you can. He would be the first to kill you, no matter what he’s promised Snoke.”  
Rey attempted to mimic the motion of Abalin’s wrist as he spun his lightsaber. “Are there any others?”  
“One more. Mihalis.” Abalin pulled up his blade mid-attack and abruptly fell back a step, and Rey nearly lost her balance overcorrecting for the lunge she expected to have to parry. “He doesn’t travel with the other Ren. He rarely leaves Snoke’s side.”  
Rey frowned. “Not the projection on the _Finalizer_ , you mean.”  
“No. Wherever Snoke really is, Mihalis protects him there.” A new uneasiness had come into his expression. “Mihalis, he’s…”  
“He’s what?” she prompted, when he seemed reluctant to continue.  
“Snoke did something to him,” Abalin said finally. “It’s a form of mind control. Like persuasion, but...permanent. Mihalis has no will of his own. It’s been fused with Snoke’s. I don’t think he even remembers who he is, or who he used to be.”  
Rey studied him in silence. “Do you think that’s what Snoke was trying to do to you? When he got into your mind after you left the Order?”  
Abalin looked unsettled, and she worried that she’d misunderstood him. But he just said, “I think so, yes.” He seemed to shake himself and his face cleared. He raised his saber again. “Ready?”  
They matched each other step for step. Abalin made a determined lunge at her, but Rey managed to roll out of his reach and follow with a series of swift strikes. He fell back, parrying her once, twice, but on the third fall of Rey’s saber their blades slid and Rey fell forward a step. Abalin twisted to avoid her, but the tip of her lightsaber grazed the underside of his forearm.  
“Abalin,” Rey gasped, extinguishing her blade and dropping the hilt. “I’m so sorry, it was an accident—I can go get Olivine, or—”  
“It’s all right,” Abalin said mildly. He inspected the gash on his arm and glanced up at her. “You can heal it.”  
Rey was caught off guard by his lack of reaction. Hesitantly, she said, “I don’t know how.”  
“I’ll show you.”  
Holding his arm out, Abalin sank into a cross-legged position by the river. Rey knelt beside him, taking his arm into her hands with reservation.  
“Put one hand over the wound,” Abalin instructed, “and listen.”  
“Listen, like…” Rey trailed off awkwardly. “Like a meld?”  
“Sort of. First, just find me.”  
“Is that safe? What if Snoke sees me again?”  
“He won’t. Not this time,” Abalin said gently.  
Rey nodded and closed her eyes. The steady sound of flowing water aided her focus, and she readily found Abalin’s presence. It was simpler to enter his thoughts now. Either Rey’s ability had improved, or Abalin was making it easier for her.  
_Good._ Abalin’s voice was calm. _Now, remember how you healed your own injury. It’s the same with someone else. Bridge your connection to the Force with the wound.  
_ Rey felt a brief pang of doubt. Abalin gave a wordless reassurance, and she refocused. Cautiously, she reached through Abalin’s mind and searched for the place that the pain of the wound was nestled. She traced it to his arm, where the flesh had been split and burnt. With relief, Rey found that the saber had not cut deeply.  
_You’re almost there,_ Abalin encouraged. _Be careful. You’ll start to feel it.  
_ Rey realized he was right—the distant burning sensation she had seen in Abalin’s mind now seemed like it was her own. But it wasn’t just on her arm; it was all over her. She retreated slightly, afraid.  
Distantly, the sound of the waterfall continued in her ears. She felt the wind shift, cloaking her in mist from the waterfall. She let it wash over her until the burning was replaced by a cold numbness.  
She became aware of a strain or a block, as if the wound were resisting her efforts. She countered by exerting more of herself, envisioning the energy of the Force as icy water flowing over Abalin’s arm and washing away the wound.  
“Rey,” said Abalin.  
She opened her eyes, blinking rapidly. She glanced down and found the skin of his arm smooth and unblemished. Startled, she said, “I did it?”  
Abalin smiled. “You did it.”   
Rey laughed, excitement bubbling in her. She released Abalin’s arm, then swayed. She shook her head dizzily. “Is it supposed to be so tiring?” she mumbled.   
“Healing takes a lot of energy. But it gets easier.” He scrutinized her. “Are you all right?”  
“Yes.” She shook herself again. “Fine.”  
“We should head back.” He held out her lightsaber, and she took it sheepishly.   
“Could you...not mention this to Hux?”  
Abalin looked puzzled. “Why?”  
“He doesn’t like me very much. And slicing you with a lightsaber probably won’t help.”  
“Why would Hux not like you?” He paused and then admitted, “He doesn’t like most people, but—”  
“No, he was very specific about me,” she assured him. “Didn’t he tell you? I tried to see you while you were still asleep after Deiene. He wouldn’t let me anywhere near you.”  
Abalin was quiet as he considered this. Then he said wryly, “I won’t mention it.” He stood from the river bank and they started back down the path to the base.  
  
  
  


***  
  
  
  


The waterfall quickly became their favored spot to train. A few days after Rey healed Abalin’s injury, they were there on a particularly cold morning, their breath blooming into clouds as they ascended the rocky path. They had just crested the final ridge to come within sight of the waterfall when Abalin halted mid-step.  
“What do you think you’re doing?” Luke demanded. He was standing in the clearing along the river, exactly where Rey and Abalin had been each of the last several days.  
When Rey looked to Abalin, he was still frozen in place. He was slow to answer, and when he spoke, his tone was cautious and reserved. “I’m training Rey.”  
“Rey is not yours to corrupt.”  
“I asked him to teach me,” Rey interjected, moving to stand between Abalin and Luke. “I asked you first, and you refused.”  
“I stopped teaching you because you refused the Jedi path. But I can’t stand by and let him turn you to the Dark Side.”  
“He hasn’t done anything to hurt me,” Rey argued. “He’s teaching me to protect myself, and to heal—”  
“Are you that naive?” Luke said with disgust. “He learned everything from Snoke. His power is rooted in darkness. That’s the only thing he knows. And it’s the only thing he could teach you.”  
Rey hesitated, turning to Abalin. “Is that true?” she said slowly. “Even the healing?”  
“No, it—Snoke never taught me to heal.” Panic had crept into Abalin’s expression and he stumbled over his words. He shook his head. “I wasn’t trying to hurt you—”  
“He’s lying to you, Rey,” Luke snapped. “Just like he’s lying to his mother. That’s his specialty.”  
She studied Abalin, her eyes tracing the scar across his face. Suddenly, vividly, she remembered him in the snow of Starkiller Base, drenched in blood—his own as well as Rey’s and Finn’s. She remembered his single-minded determination to kill her when their minds had connected through the holocrons.  
Luke’s gaze hadn’t left her face. “Before you know it, he will make you into Snoke’s servant.”  
“That’s not true,” Abalin said, in almost a whisper. “Rey, I wouldn’t—” He reached out towards her as if to touch her arm and she flinched back, her hand instinctively landing on the hilt of her saber. He froze, watching silently as Rey took several careful steps away from him, towards Luke.   
“Come, Rey,” Luke sneered at Abalin. “We’ll show the Resistance the truth about him.”  
They disappeared down the path, leaving Abalin behind.


	29. Chapter 29

Luke swept into the command room. Leia rose from her seat as soon as she saw him, her expression wary. Her eyes flickered between him and Rey, following a few steps behind him. “Luke? What’s wrong?”  
“Kylo Ren has taken it upon himself to teach Rey the ways of the Dark Side.”  
“What?”  
“I asked him to teach me.” Rey wouldn’t meet Leia’s eyes. “I wanted to learn to heal.”  
Leia shook her head. “If Rey asked Ben to teach her, and that’s what he was doing—”  
“He was teaching her what he learned from Snoke,” Luke barked.  
“Where is Ben now?” Leia asked impatiently.   
Something in Luke seemed to snap. He took a step closer to Leia and the collective gaze of the room sharpened on him, although if he noticed he gave no sign. “Leia, I’ve just told you that I saw Kylo Ren trying to turn Rey. You don’t seem to understand.”  
“I understand you perfectly. But I’d like to hear what Ben has to say.”  
“I’m sure you would. You’ve always been determined not to listen to reason about him.”  
Leia’s voice grew harsher. “Tell me where he is, Luke.”  
“He’s in the forest.”  
“You left him out there, alone?” Leia demanded. She started to step past Luke. “I have to go find him. If you’ve driven my son away—”  
“Your son is dead,” Luke cut in harshly. “There is nothing left of Ben.” He caught her arm. “I know how much it hurts to hear that, and I’m sorry. I truly am. But he can’t be trusted. I made that mistake. Han made that mistake.”  
Leia pulled her arm from his grasp. “No,” she said, her voice not as strong as it had been before. “All of that only happened because of Snoke.”  
“He is still serving Snoke. Just turn him over to the Order and watch Snoke welcome him back with open arms—”  
“If you let Snoke anywhere near Abalin, I will personally ensure that the entirety of the Resistance pays for it,” Hux said, his voice clear and cold.  
He was standing at the entrance to the command room, having stepped in unnoticed just after Rey. His gaze slid to Leia. “My apologies, General Organa. I don’t mean to insult your intelligence by implying that you would believe a word of this. But I have little patience for idle threats.”  
Luke gestured to Hux dismissively. “You see? He defends Kylo. What does that tell you? He was the leader of the First Order, one of the most evil people alive—”  
“No need for flattery, Master Skywalker,” Hux said delicately.  
“I don’t know why you didn’t string him up when you had the chance,” Luke said to Leia, as if Hux had not spoken. “The two of them have probably been working for Snoke all this time—”  
“I can’t tell if you’re deliberately trying to mislead General Organa,” Hux said smoothly, “or if you actually believe this drivel.”  
“Brendol,” Leia started, but Luke was already stepping past her. Hux watched him approach, moving no more than his eyes as Luke came within inches of him.  
“What exactly are you trying to say?” Luke snarled. “That you’ve seen the error of your ways?”  
“Certainly not. Only that you could not be more wrong about Abalin.”  
“And what would you know about him?”  
“Far more than you, if you think for an instant that he is still serving Snoke.”  
“He has you fooled, too,” Luke said. “He has everyone believing that he’s suffering because of Snoke, like he’s a victim instead of a murderer and a liar.”  
Sharply, Hux said, “You will not ever, while you are in my presence, suggest that what Abalin has endured is not real, or I will give you a reason to call me one of the most evil men alive.”  
Luke fell silent. Hux held him pinned in his gaze. “The great Luke Skywalker,” Hux said, his voice soft with scorn. “I’m afraid I’m not very impressed with your reputation as a hero. In fact, I can’t understand why anyone listens to anything you have to say. Especially you—” He rounded on Rey. “You’ve seen Abalin’s mind, and Snoke in it. Surely you understand what it cost him just to be here. Beyond that, Abalin agreed to teach you when Skywalker refused. He did so knowing full well that when it was discovered, he would take all of the blame and you would take none. And this is how you repay him?”  
Hux turned back to Luke. “The next time you are inclined to say something about Abalin,” he said, his voice falling to a murmur, “I would advise that you be prepared to defend it with your life.”  
With one last, disdainful glance, he walked out of the command room, leaving a ringing silence behind him. 


	30. Chapter 30

Hux stood on one of the walkways above the compound, his arms crossed over his chest against the cold and a cigarette between his fingers. The drone of engines from the hangars had gone quiet for the night. He heard footsteps draw near, then pause several paces away.  
“General Hux,” Leia said softly.  
He tensed at the sound of her voice but did not face her. “General Organa,” he returned, and took a measured drag on his cigarette.  
“Ben is back on the base.” Hux could feel her eyes on the back of his head. “I thought you might want to know.”  
Hux let out a breath, smoke drifting from his mouth before it vanished into the air. After a brief pause, Hux said, “Is he all right?”  
Leia was silent so long that Hux turned his head over his shoulder to see if she was still there. “Yes,” she said simply when their eyes met.  
Hux nodded and turned back towards the rail.  
He didn’t hear her approach, and started at her light touch on his arm. “Someone had to say all of that, and I’m glad it didn’t have to be me,” she said, giving a wry smile.  
Hux looked away, unable to meet her gaze.  
A few moments passed in silence. She squeezed Hux’s arm briefly, then stepped back and started down the walkway. Before she turned the corner, she added, “I’m sure he’s back at your quarters by now, if you wanted to find him.”  
He nodded and took another long, stalling drag, the tip glowing fiercely against the darkness beyond the compound. “Thank you,” he said shortly.  
He waited a few moments to glance over his shoulder again and when he did, he was alone.  
Hux dropped the cigarette, ground it out under the heel of his boot, and started towards his quarters.  
  
  


***  
  
  
  


By the time Hux reached their room, Abalin was already in bed, his back to the door. He said nothing as Hux entered, although Hux didn’t believe for an instant that he was asleep. When Hux slid under the covers, Abalin finally turned towards him, making no effort to hide the gratitude in his face.  
Hux suppressed a sigh. Still sitting up, he said curtly, “Who did you hear it from, then?”  
Abalin didn’t answer. Hux finally glanced over and held Abalin’s gaze, studying the softness in his eyes.  
Hux’s mouth thinned. “You heard it yourself.”  
Abalin gave a small nod.  
“All of it?”  
Cautiously, Abalin reached out to touch Hux’s arm. “I was looking for you, and…”  
“It’s fine. I’m glad you were listening,” he said shortly, and caught Abalin’s hand. Quieter, he went on, “I meant everything I said.”  
In one sudden motion, Abalin rolled over and pressed his face into Hux’s chest, wrapping his arms around him. For a long time, neither of them spoke while Hux brushed his hand over Abalin’s hair.  
When Abalin finally lifted his head, he rested it on Hux’s shoulder. Hux pressed a kiss to Abalin’s forehead, then laid down and pulled Abalin close alongside him. 


	31. Chapter 31

Two days passed before Rey found Abalin sitting alone outside the compound. They hadn’t spoken since the morning Luke had found them. When she reached him, they stared at each other for a few moments in tense silence.  
Rey was the one to finally break it. “When are we going back to the waterfall?”  
A relieved smile twitched on Abalin’s face. “Whenever you want.”  
They walked past Luke as they made their way off the grounds of the base. Abalin waited to see if Luke would protest, but he avoided Abalin’s eyes and continued as if he hadn’t seen them.  
They navigated away from the path that would lead them to the top of the waterfall and instead turned towards the deep pools at its base. As they came through the break in the trees and felt the first wave of mist reach them, Abalin saw Rey sneak a glance at him. He expected her to ask what he would teach her next, but instead she said, “Can you heal a wound in the Force the same way as a physical wound?”  
He considered her question, a frown gradually deepening between his brows. “It’s possible,” he said. “It would be complicated.”  
“If you want,” she said quietly, “I could try to heal the wound you have from Snoke.”  
Abalin dropped his eyes. They’d never spoken about it before, but he was conscious of it all the time: the part of him that had once been so tied to Snoke that he was never out of Snoke’s reach. The channel that Snoke had used to try to tear Abalin’s mind away in those first days after he’d left the _Finalizer_.  
“I know it’s still hurting you,” she went on, when Abalin didn’t answer. “I’m not sure if I would be able to help. But I can try.” She paused and studied him briefly. “I’d be careful.”  
Abalin tried to come up with an excuse about why she didn’t need to or why it wouldn’t work, but he couldn’t think of anything. He looked back at her mutely until she prompted, “Abalin?”  
“If you want to,” he managed.  
“I do.” She straightened up slightly and glanced around. They were far enough from the waterfall that its roar was a muted rumble, close enough to see the rainbows drifting through the mist at its base. “Is here all right?”  
He nodded and sank quietly to the ground. Rey sat facing him and reached out towards him, settling her palm into Abalin’s.  
“Ready?” she asked softly.  
Abalin drew in a long breath. “Ready.”  
She slipped easily into his thoughts and found the wound within moments; he thought he’d at least been keeping it inconspicuous, but apparently he was wrong. The feeling of her near the weakest place in his mind sent a wave of panic through him, but he fought his instinct to pull away. Rey seemed to take stock of the tattered, rotted fragment of his mind. She took a moment to center herself, like he’d taught her, and then reached into the Force, pulling it through her and into him.  
Abalin closed his eyes and focused on keeping his breathing even, wondering if he’d caused Hux half this much pain when he tried to repair the damage from their meld. The more deeply she moved in the wound, the more the phantom of Snoke’s presence filled his mind. It threatened to overwhelm him, blotting out the warmth of the sun and the sound of the waterfall nearby. But he steadied himself on Rey’s presence, trusting her to keep him anchored.  
The uncanny feeling of Snoke overtaking his mind seemed to hit a breaking point. Then, bit by bit, it started to recede.  
Rey finally withdrew from his thoughts, pulling her hand from Abalin’s. “That’s all I can do for now,” she said, with a note of apology in her voice.  
“Rey…” He took a breath, trying to reacclimate to the world outside of his mind, stunned at how much weight seemed to have been lifted from him. He turned to her, and in a small but fervent voice, he said, “Thank you.”  
She managed a weak smile, despite the worrying paleness of her face. “You’re welcome, Abalin. I hope it helps.” Unexpectedly, she reached forward and hugged him. “And thank you for everything.”  
For a moment, Abalin was too stunned to move. He returned the hug gingerly as she pressed her head to his chest.  
When she leaned back, she seemed barely able to keep her eyes open. She let herself flop onto her back with a huff. “Healing,” she said, her eyes drifting closed, “is exhausting.”  
He felt a pang of guilt. “That was much more difficult than what you were doing before. You did extremely well.”  
“Of course I did. Snoke’s no match for me,” she said through a yawn.  
Abalin breathed a laugh before he could help it. He regarded her for a few moments. “You’re going to fall asleep here.”  
“I am, yes.”  
He gave a slight roll of his eyes. He would’ve said something more, but she was already dozing in the dappled sunlight.  
Abalin walked to the edge of the pool and sat down, falling into an easy, comfortable meditation. Guardedly, he inspected the part of his mind that had once tethered him to Snoke, more closely than he’d dared since he left the Order. Traces of the wound remained, jagged and raw. But even so, he was more free of Snoke than he could remember being.


	32. Chapter 32

“Luke Skywalker has returned,” Vaelys said softly. “He fights with Master Kylo and Rey. We could not hope to capture them on Deiene.”   
Beside her, Ghodous added, “Our retreat was necessary, Supreme Leader.”  
“Cowards,” Irizar bit out. “You had them all within your grasp and you let them slip away.”  
Ghodous’s eyes cut to him. “Even you could not hope to extract them from their ranks among the Resistance.”  
“You could not defeat Master Kylo when he was weakened and alone,” Vaelys murmured.  
Irizar rounded on her. “He was  _ not _ alone,” he spat. “His cowardly pet Hux did this.” He ripped aside the bandage on his face, revealing a gruesome scar from his eye to his temple.  
Vaelys studied Irizar impassively, then turned back to Snoke. “Their bond grows stronger each day. I sensed it on Deiene. They protect each other.”  
Snoke didn’t respond, his expression darkening.  
“If the bond is severed, Kylo will be easier to destroy,” Irizar growled. “Alone, he is weak. He has abandoned the power of the Dark Side. The Light is no stronger in him than when he was a pathetic, whimpering child—”   
“His power in the Light is what drove him to betray me,” Snoke snarled, rising abruptly and extending his hand towards Irizar. He felt himself lifted to the tips of his toes, his throat suddenly too tight to breathe. “I remind you, Irizar Ren, it was your charge to destroy the Light in young Ben. It was you who allowed him to escape on Persei, who failed to prevent him from reaching the Resistance.”  
Irizar struggled to speak through the sudden constriction in his throat. “I was—wounded—”  
Snoke’s fingers curled and Irizar felt the last of the air in his lungs escape him. “I will not tolerate excuses. You would have been more useful to me as a mindless slave. Mihalis’s fate could be yours yet.” Without releasing his grasp on Irizar, his eyes fell to Ghodous and Vaelys. “Nor will I tolerate another failure from any of you. I expect you all to hunt Master Kylo down until he is dead, or until each of you is dead.”  
“Yes, Supreme Leader,” Ghodous and Vaelys answered.  
Snoke dropped Irizar carelessly. He caught himself and staggered backwards. Several moments passed in silence, broken only by Irizar’s hoarse gasps as he tried to get his breath back.  
Finally, Snoke went on, his voice once again gravelly and reserved. “Without someone to direct our resources, the First Order has stalled in its path towards conquest. That changes now. I have found a suitable replacement for the general.”  
His gaze lifted. Behind the Ren, the door to the Holochamber opened. A figure approached them, someone Irizar did not recognize—a woman with long black hair, wearing a gown that trailed behind her as she walked the length of the chamber. Ghodous and Vaelys stepped aside to allow her onto the dais, where she stood beside Irizar. She cast him a brief, unflinching glance, and then raised her eyes to Snoke.  
“Supreme Leader Snoke,” she said, her voice lilting and clear. “It is an honor to be in your presence.”  
“Carise Sindian,” Snoke returned. “As Grand Vizier, you will need to prove your worth.”  
“I intend to.”  
He regarded her calculatingly. “You have said that you can accomplish many things for the First Order.”  
“Once my position is formally announced, the world of Arkanis will swear allegiance to the First Order. After that, I will complete the invasion of the Core Worlds.” She lowered her head demurely. “There is something else I have to offer, in gratitude for the station you’ve appointed to me. Knowledge of a rumor, Supreme Leader, that involves a weakness of yours.”  
Irizar scoffed. “A weakness of the Supreme Leader’s?”  
Snoke lifted a finger to silence him. “What is this weakness?”  
“I do not know what it is. I only know who discovered it, and where it is hidden.”  
“And who might that be?”  
“Brendol Hux.”  
Snoke tilted his head. “I searched General Hux’s mind countless times. There is nothing he could have kept from me.”  
A smile unfolded on Sindian’s face. “Not the general, Supreme Leader,” Sindian purred, “but his father.”  
“His father,” he repeated slowly. “How is this possible?”  
“My family corresponded often with Commandant Hux while he helped build the First Order. Towards the end of his life, he confided to my parents that he had discovered something about you that he believed to be of great importance. Whatever it was, an artifact or a piece of information, my father believed that he concealed it somewhere within his estate on Arkanis.” She paused briefly. “Forgive my boldness, Supreme Leader. But I am not the only one who heard these rumors. Your enemies will seek to exploit any vulnerability.”  
Snoke’s eyes flashed. “And you can retrieve this item?”  
“As soon as Arkanis declares its loyalty.”  
Snoke was silent for several moments, his eyes resting on Sindian. She looked back at him steadily until Snoke said, “The Knights of Ren will accompany you. Irizar shall answer to your command and serve as your personal guard.”  
“Answer to her?” he hissed. “Supreme Leader, surely—”  
“Do you question me, Irizar?” Snoke said softly.  
Irizar bit his tongue until he tasted blood. “Never.”  
“Good.” Snoke’s gaze returned to Sindian. “If what you say is true, Grand Vizier Sindian, you shall be rewarded.”  
Sindian bowed deeply. “You will not be disappointed, Supreme Leader.”


	33. Chapter 33

“Rakan is a waste of your time. They’re not going to leave the First Order.”   
“That’s what you said about Atenai.”  
“I was right about Atenai.”  
Hux and Leia were both leaned over a console, their eyes fixed on the glass screen suspended above it. In front of them, a data map shifted each time either of them made an adjustment on the control panel. Abalin was sitting nearby, watching them.  
They were interrupted by the appearance of Lieutenant Connix at the door. She spared Hux a sidelong glance before she said, “General Organa, we just intercepted some new First Order communications.”  
“Fleet movements?” Leia asked, already turning to follow her.  
“No, more like…well, it will be easier if you see it.”  
She started down the corridor. Leia walked alongside her for a few steps before she paused, looking at Hux with her brows raised. “Aren’t you coming?”  
Hux frowned and glanced at Abalin, who shrugged back at him. They both followed after Leia.  
Connix led them into a crowded command room with a large table at its center. Poe and Finn were waiting for them, along with a dozen other Resistance officers.  
“We detected movement from a few star destroyers headed rimward from Rivulon,” Connix explained. “They stopped at Arkanis.”  
“Seems like Arkanis finally went public with their allegiance to the First Order,” Finn said. “Look at this—”  
He turned on the holoprojector and a large, detailed image of Arkanis rose from the center of the table. In the southeastern hemisphere of the planet, a cluster of red dots flickered.  
“A landing party from the lead destroyer arrived on the surface at these markers,” Connix said. “We got these images from local surveillance.”  
A rectangular frame appeared over the map. It showed an avenue in the Arkanian capital city of Elizeth, its width filled by neat rows of stormtroopers. Leading them was a woman in a long black gown with the military emblem of the First Order in gold on each shoulder.  
In perfect unison and in the same scandalized tone, Leia and Hux both exclaimed, “Sindian?”  
Everyone in the room turned to stare at Hux, including, most surprised of all, Leia.  
“I thought I had finally gotten rid of her,” Hux spat. He shook his head, his eyes fixed on the holo. “But she always seems to claw her way back.”  
“She’s leading a ceremony in Elizeth to commemorate their alliance to the First Order,” Connix said. “Which, according to our sources, is doubling as a victory lap to celebrate her coronation as the Order’s new Grand Vizier.”  
_“Grand Vizier?”_ Hux repeated scathingly.  
“Apparently, she was appointed by your old pal Snoke,” Poe said.  
Hux turned to Abalin. In a low voice, he asked, “What game is Snoke playing with this?”  
Before Abalin could reply, Leia spoke over him. “Hold on. What do you mean, gotten rid of her?”  
Hux gave a thin smile. “I’m sure you recall a certain highly publicized conversation between then-Senator Sindian and myself.”  
“Yes,” Leia answered cautiously. “You were trying to recruit her into the Order.”  
“The purpose of which was to put an end to her meddling once and for all.” Hux’s lip curled. “But evidently, she has managed to weasel her way into Snoke’s favor.”  
Leia was silent for a few beats. “You...outed her as a traitor to the New Republic on purpose.”  
“It was extremely effective in keeping her out of the way. Until now.”  
“I’m still missing something.” Leia shook her head. “How do you know her in the first place?”  
Hux glanced at her with growing impatience. “Both of our families were prominent in the Empire. For a time, our fathers worked closely together.”  
“Your families were friends?” Leia said disbelievingly.  
Hux hesitated for a moment too long, and Abalin seemed to sense the flash of discomfort in his thoughts.  
“Snoke just needs someone to be the face of the Order,” Abalin said, before Hux had to answer. “Someone who won’t interfere with his own plans.”  
“Then what exactly does a Grand Vizier do?” Poe asked.  
“Since it’s Sindian, almost certainly nothing,” Hux said. “It’s probably a meaningless title, meant to distract the New Republic.”  
“Distract from what?” Leia said.  
“Maybe the Order is finally picking up speed again after Naydra?” Finn suggested.  
While they spoke, Hux edged closer to the projection of Arkanis. He leaned in towards the image, intently studying a second grouping of red dots.  
Finn turned to Poe and said in an approximation of a whisper, “What is he doing?”  
Ignoring him, Hux asked musingly, “What are these markers, here?”  
“Looks like a side trip from the capital city.” Connix glanced at him. “You said she’s from Arkanis, right? Maybe that’s her house.”  
Hux gave a soft laugh. “No. Not quite.”  
“Then...” Poe glanced at the others around the table, apparently to see whether everyone else was as lost as he was. “What is it?”  
Hux paused, realizing that he had the eyes of the entire room on him. “That would be Wreavenwood,” Hux said mildly. “My home.”  
Finn stared at him with a total lack of comprehension. “What do you mean, your home?”  
“My family’s estate.”  
“And why,” Leia said emphatically, “would Snoke send Sindian to your house?”  
“Snoke knows you’re not dead,” Finn pointed out. “Maybe he sent her to look for you.”  
Hux scoffed. “I should hope they think me cleverer than to hide in my own home.” After a few moments, Hux continued in a thoughtful murmur, “No, they must have been searching for something.”  
“What the hell do you have in your house that Snoke would want?” asked Poe.  
Hux said slowly, “Something that Sindian believed would prove valuable to the Order, or—”  
He broke off, straightening up as his eyes flickered past the green-tinted holo of Arkanis.  
Leia frowned at him, her expression concerned. “Hux?” she prompted.  
Hux looked away from the projection, unsettled. “There was a rumor that my father had discovered something he shouldn’t have. Something about Snoke that he sealed away.” He paused. “Sindian might know where it is. Now that she’s serving Snoke, she would try to bring it to him. If that is the case, we should intercept her as soon as possible.”  
Leia regarded him. “What do you suggest?”  
“I’ll go to Arkanis,” Hux said. “I might be able to determine what’s been taken, if anything.”  
“Is that really a good idea?” Finn asked. “I mean, the fleet is right there.”  
“Anyone landing on Arkanis has to go through the First Order checkpoints,” Poe added. “And you’re not as popular with that crowd as you used to be.”  
“He won’t go alone.” Leia looked to Poe, Finn, and Abalin. “The three of you and Rey take the _Falcon_. That ship has gotten through planetary barricades before.”   
“I’m not sure that’s necessary…or wise,” Hux said reluctantly.  
“It’s either that or we wait around to find out what Sindian was looking for,” Leia said. “And by the sound of it, that won’t end well for us. Right?”  
Hux cast a brief glance at Abalin. Uncomfortably, he nodded.  
“All right, then,” Leia said decisively. “Dameron, get the _Falcon_ prepped with Rey. I want you all on your way in a week.”


	34. Chapter 34

“Inbound ship, routed towards Akroma. Looks like a passenger shuttle with New Republic markings.”   
The report from the scouting team froze Leia in her tracks. Her head snapped towards the officer who had spoken. “Can you tell who’s on it?”  
The technician shook his head. “The registry number didn’t pull a name.”   
Leia turned to face the massive windows of the ops room, which overlooked the hangar. With a sinking feeling, she realized there was only one person in the New Republic who would want to drop in on the Resistance unannounced. “Divo,” she said shortly.   
Whatever the reason for his visit, nothing good could come of him finding the two most wanted fugitives in the galaxy on her base.  
Leia left the ops room and reached the floor of the hangar. She found Rey and Poe near the _Falcon_ , pushing crates up the loading ramp of the ship’s hold while BB-8 scanned in the cargo. Cutting off Poe’s chipper greeting, Leia said tensely, “Change of schedule. You’re leaving now.”  
“What’s going on?” Poe asked.  
“Surprise inspection,” Leia replied. “Finish loading up and launch.”  
Rey looked between Leia and Poe. “Right now?”  
“Preferably ten minutes ago.”  
Rey and Poe exchanged a glance, then raced up the ramp with their last load of crates. Leia turned to make her way to the command center. As she was about to leave the hangar, she spotted Hux and Abalin near the entryway. “Get on the _Falcon_ ,” she called as she drew near them. “You’re heading to Arkanis early.”  
They slowed, and Hux frowned at her. “I thought we were leaving in two days.”  
“New plan. Unless you’d like to have a chat with Admiral Divo.”  
Hux stopped walking. “I’m sorry?”  
“He’s on his way. Which means you two need to not be here.” Leia had passed them and walked backwards to continue speaking to them. “The others are already waiting at the ship. Go. Good luck.”  
She spun to face forwards and started to cut a path across the long, empty expanse of the airfield and towards the command center. When she finally reached it, she strode over to Connix.   
She was on her feet as soon as she saw Leia. “You heard about the New Republic ship—?”  
“Yes. If anyone asks, we’ve been here on Akroma for weeks, and we were never anywhere near Deiene. And nobody knows a thing about General Hux and Kylo Ren.”  
Connix gave a short nod and hurried away.  
Leia watched her go, calculating the minutes since she’d spoken to Poe and Rey. She turned towards Lieutenant Kumae, who was in front of the radar screen, and started, “The _Falcon_ should be on the way by now, so—”  
“The _Falcon_...is still in the hangar, General,” Kumae said.  
Leia stared blankly back at her. “It’s what?”   
Before Kumae could answer, Leia snatched up a comm set from the nearest console, set it to the _Falcon’s_ frequency, and jammed it into her ear. “You seem to still be on this planet,” she said, to whomever was in the cockpit.  
“Well, there’s a...slight problem,” Rey’s voice replied. “You need two people to fly the Falcon, and I _thought_ Poe would be able to copilot—”  
“I _thought_ I’d have another two days to learn it,” Poe’s voice interjected.  
“—but apparently, he can’t. So, since no one else knows how to fly this piece of garbage—”  
“Rey.”   
There was a brief pause. “Yes?”  
In a strangled voice, Leia said, “Someone else knows how to fly the _Falcon_.”  
There was a second, longer pause, followed by a short scuffling sound as if Rey were twisting around in her seat, followed in turn by her voice bellowing: _“Abalin!”  
_Kumae waved her over and pointed at the radar screen. The New Republic ship was approaching the atmosphere of Arkoma.  
“Hurry up,” Leia hissed into the comm set.   
The other end of the line had dissolved into an unintelligible jumble of shouting. Leia pulled the comm set out of her ear, wincing.  
“They’re asking you to meet them,” Kumae said, glancing over her shoulder.  
Leia drew in a steadying breath. “Let’s get this over with.”  
She left the command center and stepped outside, onto the airfield. Finally, the _Falcon_ emerged from the hangar. It hovered above the ground for several moments before the engines flared and the ship lurched into the sky.  
Leia let out a sigh of relief. “Glad he can actually fly that thing,” she muttered.  
Not long after, the New Republic shuttle appeared as a white speck on the horizon. Connix caught up with her, and the two of them stood watching the shuttle’s rapid descent.  
Her expression steeled as a walkway hinged outward from the ship to the ground. Divo strode out of the shuttle, flanked by New Republic guards. He caught sight of Leia and strolled towards her.  
“General Organa. Good to see you again,” he said, with no change in his severe expression. “I’m sure you know why I’m here.”  
“I really don’t.”   
His eyes swept over the airfield. “Well, I got a report about an engagement with the First Order over on the planet Deiene.” He brought his gaze back to Leia, observing her critically. “Now, I know my forces haven’t been anywhere near there. So who do you think it was?”  
“Local dispute?” Leia suggested.  
“I thought you might say something like that. Walk with me.” He stepped past Leia towards the hangar, signaling for his guards to stay near the ship. With a glance to Connix, Leia turned to follow him.  
“I understand that we’re not on the best of terms,” he said.   
“You mean after the New Republic fired on us at Naydra?”  
Divo grimaced. “That was an unfortunate coincidence. You understand, of course, that we couldn’t sacrifice our advantage over the Order for the sake of a handful of Resistance ships. Besides, it seems like you made it out just fine.” His gaze lingered on the hangar. “Which brings me to my visit today. You see, General, with the First Order getting more aggressive in the last few weeks, I’ve had to increase security in the New Republic. If I find that you’ve decided to violate Senate orders, I’m afraid I’ll have to place you under arrest. You and everyone on this base.”  
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”   
“On my way here, I noticed you have multiple scout ships on patrol. Almost like you’re looking for a fight.”  
“It’s just a precaution we were granted by Senator Chiron in the grounding order.” Leia’s expression hardened. “Where is Chiron?”  
Divo glanced briefly at her. “You didn’t hear? He was on the planet Linnea when the First Order invaded. He didn’t survive.”  
Leia stared at him. She was certain that Divo had something to do with Chiron’s death just before Naydra, and she’d expected him to lie about it. Still, his brazen self-assurance struck her silent.   
“I’m sorry, Leia. I know that you and Chiron were close.”  
“I’m sorry too,” Leia replied stonily.  
Divo stopped walking. When Leia glanced at him, she found that his expression had grown colder. “I have to admit, I haven’t been entirely honest,” he said. “I was hoping to have a serious conversation with you about some...troubling rumors.”  
“What rumors would those be?”  
“Well, as you know, my fleet enjoyed a pretty easy victory at Naydra. But there was talk that two fugitives escaped. Apparently, General Hux and his accomplice Kylo Ren were sighted at some scrubby outpost on the Rim. No one’s seen them since.”  
“I thought the New Republic confirmed that General Hux was dead,” Leia said, drawing her brows together.   
“Like I said. Just a rumor.”  
“If he was alive, I sincerely doubt he would make his way here. And you said Kylo Ren was his accomplice?”  
Divo’s eyes narrowed. “Now isn’t a good time to act cute with me, General Organa,” he growled.  
Leia smiled. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”  
“Let me speak freely then. I think you’re lying to me. I think you know something about a fugitive or two, and it had something to do with Deiene.”  
“No,” Leia said, allowing an edge into her voice. “I think that you just want to see me in prison, and you’re looking for a story that will let you get your way. I’m sorry to say that the Resistance has been compliant with the Senate grounding orders, and there are no fugitives here.”  
Divo rolled his tongue along his cheek. “Mind if I search the rest of your base?”  
Leia drew a breath. Even with Hux and Abalin gone, they couldn’t hope to hide all the evidence of Deiene: ship logs, infirmary records, all the inventory catalogs from the move to Akroma. Divo would know within minutes that she’d been lying.  
Before she could come up with an answer, Divo’s eyes shifted to something behind her. Leia turned and found herself face to face with Luke.   
“Ah, General Organa,” he said. “There you are.”  
Divo straightened, staring Luke down. “Who’s this?”  
“A friend of the Resistance,” Luke replied. “I assume the inspection is going well.”  
“Just getting started.” Divo’s eyes flickered over Luke. “I think you better tell me who you are.”  
“It’s time for you to be on your way, Admiral.” Luke stepped forward and lifted his hand in an arc across his chest. In a flat, calm voice, Luke said, “There is nothing suspicious on this base.”  
Divo stiffened. “There is nothing suspicious on this base,” he echoed.  
Luke met Leia’s eyes and raised his brows, then sidled back towards the hangar.  
Divo was staring vaguely at the place where Luke had been standing with a very slight frown on his face. Leia said firmly, “As I was saying, I hope this visit has alleviated some of your concerns, Admiral.”  
Divo blinked at her, slowly refocusing on her face. “Yes,” he said, uncertainly. “I guess you’re in the clear. If you do hear about any fugitives, you are required to inform my command.”  
“Of course,” Leia said, steering him back towards his shuttle. “I’ll keep an eye out.”  
Once Divo’s ship had taken to the air, Luke stepped up behind her, looking pleased with himself.  
“You’re welcome,” he said, when Leia didn’t address him.  
Leia scowled. “I had it handled.”  
“He was going to tear the base apart. Something would have tipped him off.”  
Her expression softened. “You’re right,” she admitted. “Thanks.”  
They watched the ship soar towards the horizon, then veer upwards out of Akroma’s atmosphere. “He knows the New Republic can’t hold out against the Order much longer,” Leia murmured. “Let’s hope that Hux knows what he’s doing on Arkanis.”


	35. Chapter 35

“We only have a few hours left at hyperspeed,” Rey said. “Engage the autopilot so we can ask Hux how we’re supposed to get through the checkpoint.”  
Abalin glanced at her, confused. “The autopilot is on your side.”  
Without moving her eyes from the gauges in front of her, she said, “It’s actually not.”  
Abalin frowned at the console’s array of unfamiliar, unlabeled lights and switches. Somewhat dismayed, he asked, “What did you do to this ship?”  
Rey snapped, “I didn’t do anything. It’s changed hands a lot. Everyone wanted to add their own stupid modification.”  
“Where’s the autopilot now?”  
Rey pointed to a lever in front of him.   
“That’s not the autopilot, that’s the…what is that?”  
“It’s the autopilot,” Rey insisted.   
Abalin searched the panels and found a lever centered between them. “Here it is—”  
“No, no, don’t do that—”  
The ship shuddered, and the ambient noise of the engines was interrupted by a brief, grating screech. A red indicator light beside the lever Abalin had pulled began to blink.  
“Well done,” Rey remarked.  
Behind them, BB-8 rolled in from the hall. He let out a stream of scolding beeps directed at Abalin.  
“I know, BB-8, I told him,” said Rey. “He’s worse than Han.”  
Abalin stared at her as she stood from her seat and stepped around BB-8. “I’m going to fix what you broke,” she said.  
He shook his head, recovering. “I can fix it—”  
“No, you can’t,” Rey said, disappearing down the hall.  
Abalin finally engaged the lever Rey had said was the autopilot, giving a defeated sigh when it worked. He stood and started to follow her, but found BB-8 obstructing his path.   
“Move,” Abalin said, and then paused. “Please.”   
BB-8 shook his head, giving a low tone of warning. Abalin made to go around him, but BB-8 rolled into his shin each time Abalin tried to dodge him. Aggrieved, Abalin shouted into the hall, “Poe? Get your droid out of the cockpit.”  
“Sorry,” came the response. “BB-8, come here.”  
BB-8 chirped unhappily, looking at Abalin with distrust before finally turning and rolling back down the hall. Abalin followed a few paces behind him. He stepped into the common area, where Poe and Finn were entertaining themselves at the dejarik table and Hux was on the seat at the engineering station.  
Poe glanced up at Abalin. “Already breaking the ship?”  
“No. Where did Rey go?”  
“That way,” Finn said, nodding towards the rear hold.   
Abalin opened his mouth to respond when a loud clunk reverberated through the ship.   
“That was a new sound,” Poe laughed.   
Hux groaned, and Abalin glanced at him. Hux had his arms folded tightly across his middle, and his face was somehow paler than usual.  
“What’s wrong with you?” Abalin asked.  
Hux shook his head mutely.  
“He’s just a little spacesick,” Finn answered, grinning from ear to ear. “According to him, the _Falcon_ is ‘rubbish’ and also ‘a death trap.’”  
Abalin frowned. “This...can’t be worse than the jumpship from Batna.”  
Hux closed his eyes. “Stop talking.”  
BB-8 rolled up to Hux and bumped gently into his knee, cooing. Hux paled even further. “Dameron, can you please keep your droid away from me?” he hissed.  
“Aw, but he likes you.”  
“Then at least have him kill me before this ship does,” Hux managed, sounding strangled.  
“Yeah, I don’t think he’s equipped to do that.”  
Shaking his head, Abalin left the common area and made his way into the rear hold. Here the space was tighter, and he was forced to crouch as he navigated around empty crates and rusted spare parts.   
“Rey?” he called out.   
Rey’s voice echoed sharply off the metal walls. “Bring me a hexdriver.”   
Abalin spun as he tried to find her, brow furrowed. “Where are you?”  
He started when a hatch on the floor slid open and Rey’s head popped out. “Did you bring the hexdriver?”  
“The—where?”  
She pointed towards a case on the wall. “Check in there.”  
Abalin reached into the case and was met with an assortment of grimy-looking tools. He procured one and handed it to Rey.   
“What are you doing?” he asked, warily.  
“I’m repairing the electromotive stabilizers, obviously. You blew them when you overclocked the repulsorlift drive.”  
Abalin frowned. “That’s not even possible.”  
“It shouldn’t be, but Unkar Plutt installed a chrysocate hypercharger and now they both draw power from the repulsorlift.”  
Exasperated, Abalin asked, “What is the hypercharger for?”  
“Hopefully nothing—” Rey tossed a hunk of rusted metal out of the compartment. It was smoking as it rolled towards Abalin. “That’s it, there. Hand me a flash-welder and we’ll...probably be fine.”  
“Probably?”  
“We’ll just have to land very carefully.”  
Rey’s hand stuck out of the hatch, and Abalin exchanged the hexdriver for the flash-welder. Slowly, he said, “Did Han teach you all of this?”  
Rey laughed. “No, I taught him. I did a lot of eavesdropping at Niima Outpost while Unkar Plutt did everything he could to make sure this ship never flew again.”  
A burst of steam rose from the hatch and Rey climbed out, a streak of black grease across her forehead. “Done,” she said brightly. “Now we just need to recalibrate the stabilizers from the cockpit and they should work. More or less.”  
Abalin scowled as he put away the tools.   
“You’re welcome,” Rey said, smirking.   
He closed the hatch and followed Rey back into the common area. Poe laughed when he saw them. “Rey, you have ship on your face.” He gestured at his forehead and Rey scrubbed at the streak of grease with the back of her sleeve.  
“How’d that go?” asked Finn.  
“Fine,” Abalin said flatly.   
“Are you mad because Rey knows the _Falcon_ better than you do?”  
“Yes,” Rey said as Abalin snapped, “No.”   
Poe chuckled. “I take it the _Falcon’s_ not going to blow up? Hux was very worried.”  
“I would rather it did,” Hux said miserably, still trying to keep BB-8 at arm’s length. “Then I wouldn’t have to endure this any longer.”  
Abalin rolled his eyes. “We still don’t have a plan for when we reach Arkanis.”  
“These freighters are the most common ship in the galaxy,” said Rey. “No one’s going to give it a second glance if we say we’re delivering cargo.”  
“Would that work?” Finn asked Hux. “Will they ask a lot of questions?”  
“It should be fine as long as I do the talking,” Hux said. “Assuming we make it there alive.”  
Abalin and Rey returned to the cockpit. Before long, Arkanis glittered below them, a world of temperate greens and blues. A massive circular structure hung between them and the surface, glinting in the sunlight. Beside it were several First Order gunships, surrounding the checkpoint. Poe, Finn, and Hux had crowded into the cockpit behind Abalin and Rey.  
Over Rey’s shoulder, Finn said, “Anyone else having doubts about this plan?”  
“As long as they don’t flag us, we’re fine.” Rey’s voice betrayed her nerves. “Right?”  
Hux stood between Abalin and Rey, his hand tightly gripping the top of Abalin’s seat as the _Falcon_ coasted unsteadily towards the checkpoint. “Just keep silent.”   
Several moments later, a voice crackled on the _Falcon’s_ communicator. “YT-1500 Corellian freighter—”  
“1300,” Abalin muttered under his breath, and Hux flashed him a severe look.  
“—you are entering restricted territory. State your business.”  
Hux said, “Freighter to checkpoint, transporting cargo to Elizeth.”  
“Which sector?”  
“Eastern.”  
There was a pause on the other end. “Standby for inspection.”  
Several scanner droids emerged from the checkpoint station and surrounded the _Falcon_. Abalin and Hux turned their faces away as one of the droids passed over the cockpit, briefly bathing them in red light.  
“Freighter, our readings detect that your stabilizers are out,” said the officer. “We can repair that for you, if you like—”  
“That won’t be necessary,” Hux answered.  
“Are you certain? You’ll have a difficult time landing.”  
“We will be fine,” Hux said, glaring at Abalin, who pointed at Rey.  
“Very well. You’re clear to pass.”  
The channel closed and everyone except Hux gave a sigh of relief. Irately, Hux asked, “How do you intend to land without stabilizers?”  
“They’re not completely out,” Rey muttered.   
“Let’s go before they change their minds,” Abalin said impatiently, engaging the drive. The _Falcon_ jolted forward as the shimmering planetary shield opened.   
Hux directed them to Wreavenwood in the northwestern hemisphere, far beyond Elizeth and the mainland. They dropped into the atmosphere, and the indistinct blues and greens of the surface turned to thick, seemingly endless forest.  
As the details of the landscape below them grew clearer, Abalin glanced down at the series of red lights indicating the ship’s various malfunctions. “Maybe…everyone should go to the back.”  
“Try not to kill us,” Hux snapped, and left for the common area with Finn following behind him.  
“I want to see this,” Poe said, dropping into the seat behind Abalin. “If you manage to land this thing without stabilizers, I’ll be pretty impressed.”  
“Don’t get your hopes up,” Rey said. “Abalin, we have to do this manually, so you’ll need to activate the landing jets before I disengage the fuel intermixer.”  
He glanced at her, alarmed. “If we do it in that order, the fuel will flood the broken stabilizer—”  
“It absolutely will not. Are you ready?”  
The ground was looming closer. “Wait, Rey, that’s not going to work—”  
“If you don’t activate the landing jets now, we’re going to be too close—”  
_“You have to disengage the—”  
_ Rey stood from her seat and leaned across the main console, slamming her palm down on the switch for the landing jets. The ship rocked violently as the jets stuttered, then roared to life.  
Rey had let go of the main controls to press the switch on Abalin’s side of the console. Abalin grabbed the controls, trying to straighten the ship as it neared the surface. He almost succeeded, and the _Falcon_ hit the ground at a slight angle. It bounced once, then a second time, skidding a long way with one side sinking gradually further into the dirt and the other side canting up into the air.  
The ship finally scraped to a stop. There was stunned silence in the cockpit. Poe was the first to recover, straightening up and climbing out of his seat. “I guess that counts as a landing,” he chuckled. “I’ll go see if Hux and Finn made it.”  
As Poe left the cockpit, Rey shoved the hair out of her eyes and shot a glare at Abalin. “You’re a terrible copilot,” she snapped.  
She exited the cockpit in a huff. Abalin sullenly powered down the ship and engaged the causeway. He was the last to file out.   
Because of the ship’s odd angle, the causeway didn’t quite meet the ground, and he had to leap from the last step. He joined the rest, breathing in the cold, damp air of Arkanis. Rey was standing with her hand lifted, letting the gentle rain fall on her palm.  
“Sorry about your yard,” Poe said, surveying the long scar of torn grass and upturned earth behind the _Falcon_. He looked back at the causeway, where BB-8 lingered. “Stay there, buddy, okay? You can fix whatever Abalin broke.”   
BB-8 chirped an affirmative, rolling back into the ship.  
Abalin watched as Hux took a few steps forward, looking to the structure ahead of them. Through the misting rain, the manor was a muted gray, its many windows shrouded and dark. Hux was still for several moments. Without making an effort, Abalin could sense the volatile churn of Hux’s thoughts.   
Hux seemed to become sharply aware of Abalin’s attention. He glanced over his shoulder at the group of them, all looking back at him uncertainly. “Are we planning to stand out here all day?” he snapped, and started to lead them towards the house.


	36. Chapter 36

“Is all this yours?” Rey lengthened her stride to keep up with Hux as they crossed the grounds towards the house.   
“My father’s. Technically mine now, yes.”  
“This place is bigger than the base on Akroma,” Finn muttered.  
They reached the imposing front door, set into the gray stone of the house’s facade. Hux stopped, the rest of them halting a few feet behind him.  
“So,” Poe said into the silence, “do you have a key, or…”  
“I don’t think we need one,” Hux said, finally reaching forward to push open the door. With a low creak, it swung inwards to reveal a foyer in ruins.  
Shattered glass covered the floor. The tapestries on the wall had been slashed, the remaining shreds blackened and singed. Furniture lay in splinters, hurled from the landing above the staircase.  
“What happened to this place?” Finn said in an undertone.  
Hux took several steps into the foyer and pivoted slowly in place. “Sindian,” he answered. “Although she won’t have done any of this herself. I suspect this was stormtroopers, or—”  
“The Ren,” Abalin said. “They’ve been here recently.”  
“But they’re not still here, right?” Finn said, betraying nervousness in his voice.   
He went quiet for a moment, and Hux had the disconcerting feeling of Abalin’s presence slipping beyond the walls of the house. “No,” he said finally. “I don’t think they’re nearby.”  
“So did they find what they were looking for?” Poe said.   
“I’m not certain,” Hux answered, peering first down one gloom-shrouded hallway that branched off the foyer and then down another. “But I think I may recognize what’s missing, if she has taken something.”  
“Well, what do we do?” Finn called up to him as Hux started to climb the broad staircase.   
“Were you expecting a dinner reception?” Hux snapped.  
“He means we want to help,” Rey said, craning her neck to look up at him.  
Hux paused at the top of the stairs. “Come help me look, then,” he said in an aggrieved voice.  
“But we don’t know what we’re looking for,” Poe said, already starting up the steps.  
“Neither do I. We’ll try the library first.” Hux glanced down at the main floor, where Rey and Finn had started to follow Poe upstairs. Abalin lingered at the entrance to another hallway on the opposite side of the foyer.  
“Abalin,” Hux said sharply.  
Abalin turned, startled. Hux arched a brow coolly. “Are you coming?”  
Without waiting for an answer, he turned and led the other three to a large set of double doors standing open at the end of a corridor.   
The library had a vaulted ceiling and a spiral staircase that wound upwards to a shadowy second story. Like the foyer, the Ren had apparently torn through in a fury. Abalin and Rey went to the upper floor while Hux, Poe, and Finn stepped around toppled bookshelves, kneeling as they began to sort through the torn papers strewn at their feet.   
“It’s all just destroyed,” Rey said, carefully avoiding the splintered edge of the wooden handrail as she descended the steps back to Hux. “Why would they do this?”  
“They must have been quite determined to find what they came for,” Hux responded quietly.  
Rey studied him. “How could your father have discovered something about Snoke? Did he work for Snoke too?”  
Hux’s mouth thinned. “In a different capacity,” he said, evasively. “My father helped to redesign the Empire’s stormtrooper program—”  
“Figures,” Finn murmured darkly.  
“—and he was also the head of Project Harvester.”  
A small frown creased Rey’s face. “What is that?”  
Abalin had followed Rey down to the main floor. Hux caught eyes with him, although for once he couldn’t clearly read Abalin’s expression. Hux turned back to Rey and said, “A division of the Empire that was responsible for finding and eradicating Force sensitives.”  
“You mean Jedi?” Finn asked.  
Hux hesitated. “Not necessarily. The Inquisitors sought to exterminate anyone with the Force who might eventually oppose them. Whether they knew it or not.”  
No one replied for a long time. Eventually, Rey said, “So what did Snoke have to do with it?”  
“My father handled the...administrative side of things. Snoke located the Force sensitives and had the Inquisitors hunt them down.”  
“That’s how Snoke found the first Knights of Ren,” Abalin said, very softly. Hux looked to him but his eyes were on Rey. “Ghodous’s family was executed by Project Harvester. Snoke spared Ghodous and trained him.”  
“That’s why Ghodous knows how to use the Light,” Rey said, and Abalin nodded.  
Hux was quiet for a few moments. “Obviously, my father’s work brought him into contact with many people who opposed Snoke and the Empire. I imagine he obtained this secret from one of them.”  
Into the ensuing silence, Rey said, “Didn’t he tell you anything about it? This...weakness of Snoke’s?”  
“I hadn’t spoken to my father for almost ten years before he died.” Hux paused. “By then, I had heard from quite a few people that my father had become…irrational. He’d grown reclusive and paranoid. According to rumor, it was the secret that he discovered about Snoke that drove him insane. Or at least his desperation to keep it hidden.” Rey’s eyes lingered on him until Hux finally turned away. “We’ve searched here long enough.”  
At the next room, Hux paused with his hand on the door. “It will take all night if we continue like this. Abalin and I will look in these rooms, and you three can take the next wing.”  
“There’s a next wing?” Poe said, aghast.  
Hux suppressed a sigh. “Down this corridor and to the left.”  
“So your plan is for us to dig through a house we’ve never been in that’s completely ransacked and hope we can figure out what’s _not_ here?” Finn asked.  
“If you have a different idea, I am open to suggestion.”  
Finn drew a breath to argue and then started down the hallway. Poe and Rey followed Finn, while Hux pushed open the door in front of him.  
He stepped over a defunct maintenance droid in the threshold and surveyed the room. The space was littered with hand-drawn maps and notes. A shelf was overturned in one corner, and drawers had been ripped out of the desk and upended. As Hux combed through the debris, he began to have the unsettling feeling that some of the disarray had already been there before the Ren arrived.  
Abalin and Hux searched in silence. Hux was aware of Abalin lingering over some of the contents of the desk, but he didn’t bother to find out what had drawn Abalin’s attention. The bond between them was unusually quiet, and Hux suspected that Abalin was deliberately keeping a considerate distance from Hux’s thoughts.  
A few minutes had passed when they were interrupted by Finn’s voice from down the hall. “Uh...Hux? We might have something.” 


	37. Chapter 37

Broken glass crunched under Hux’s boots as he crossed the room. The metal frames of display cases stood skeletal along the walls, the glass panels smashed in. The small bulbs that had illuminated the shelves were scattered on the ground, sputtering weakly, creating little puddles of reflected light in the shards of glass.   
“This is the only one gone?” Hux said.  
He was standing in front of a case in the center of the room. A series of medals fit neatly into a custom-made display, now hung crookedly in the frame. All of the indentations in the case were filled except one.  
“Yes. And this is the last room that’s been searched—the ones past this look like they haven’t been touched, so we thought they probably found whatever they were looking for here,” Finn said.  
“We were putting everything back where it belonged. This is the only thing we couldn’t find.” Rey paused. “Are they all yours?”  
Hux gave a dark smile. “My father’s, for the most part.” He bent in to read the plaque underneath the empty space. “But these were my grandfather’s.”  
Poe squinted at the other medals in the case. “Wait a minute. These are Republic medals.”  
“Old Republic,” Hux said disinterestedly. “My grandfather served in the Old Republic army prior to the establishment of the Empire.”  
Poe frowned. “What would Sindian or the Ren want with some family heirloom?”  
“I suspect that it houses some sort of archive, containing information that’s valuable to Snoke.” He was quiet for several moments, staring at the empty notch in the case. “But the information will likely be encrypted.”  
Rey shivered. “Can we get out of this room?” she said uneasily.  
Hux glanced at her and nodded. He led them back out to the main wing. It had grown cold in the house since night fell. Hux could hear steady rainfall and distant thunder every time they passed a window; nearly all of them had at least one shattered panel, letting the cold wind spill in from outside.  
He pushed open a door into a large parlor with a hearth on the far wall. The Ren hadn’t gotten this far, and the room was fully intact. As the rest of them filed in and arranged themselves on chairs and sofas, Hux stood in the doorway. “We should contact General Organa and find out what happened with the New Republic investigation before we decide what to do next.”  
“There’s not much hurry, since we can’t go anywhere tonight,” Poe said, bouncing lightly in his chair.  
Hux stared at him blankly. “What?”  
“The curfew,” he said. “The planetary nets shut down at nightfall. No one comes or goes until the checkpoints open back up at 0700 local. It’s been like that ever since Arkanis aligned with the First Order.” He paused. “Didn’t General Organa tell you?”  
Hux drew a slow breath before answering. “No. She neglected to mention. So you’re expecting to stay…”  
Poe threw his legs over the arm of the chair and interlocked his fingers behind his head. “Here,” he said with a broad grin. “The Resistance appreciates your hospitality.”  
Hux was momentarily stunned. He glanced at Abalin, who did not hide his smirk quickly enough. Defeated, Hux sank down into an empty chair and said, “I don’t think the Ren will return here, at least for the night. Do you?”  
“No,” Abalin said, managing to look solemn again. “But I’ll know if they get close.”  
“We should still leave as soon as possible. If anyone does come looking for us, we’ll be absurdly easy to find here.”  
“And go where?” Finn said. “Sindian has whatever it was she wanted so bad. Does that mean we’re too late?”  
“I don’t think so,” Hux said slowly. “Assuming the information is encrypted, Sindian will have realized quickly that she isn’t able to access what she needs. I expect she hasn’t gone far. I think…” He hesitated. “I think if I contact her—”  
“Contact Sindian?” Rey said in a tone of disbelief. “Won’t she just send the Ren after us?”  
“If I’m right about the encryption, she’ll be waiting to hear from me.”  
“But you don’t know how to unlock it either,” Finn said.  
“No. But if I can convince her that I do, I might be able to take it from her.”  
Poe looked moderately impressed. “So what’s your angle? Obviously you can’t be working for the Resistance.”  
Hux turned this over for a few moments. “I’ll tell her that if I break the encryption, I expect her to tell Snoke that I’m dead.”  
“So she calls off the bounty on your head, and in exchange she gets to bring Snoke what he wants.” He paused. “You think she’ll fall for it?”  
“I do,” Hux said. “This is not the first time Sindian and I have found ourselves...at odds. If you’ve known her as long as I have, she’s not difficult to predict.”  
Poe raised his eyebrows. “You two have history?”  
Hux smiled enigmatically. “In a manner of speaking.”  
“Sindian has the Ren on her side,” Abalin interjected. “If she suspects anything, she could have them kill you.”  
“I can negotiate the absence of the Ren as part of my terms.”  
“That’s only as good as Sindian’s word,” Abalin said. “And according to you, that’s not worth anything.”  
“You’ll be able to warn me if the Ren get close. With any luck, I can get this heirloom from Sindian and we’ll leave before the Ren know we’re there.”  
After a short hesitation, Abalin nodded, albeit unenthusiastically.  
“Sounds like a plan,” Poe said, suppressing a yawn. “Do you know if there’s any food around here?”  
Hux stared at him for several seconds. “I have no idea,” he said finally. “There are supplies on the _Falcon_ , aren’t there?”  
“Yeah, but it’s pouring rain and Abalin landed the thing about two damn miles from the house.”  
Defensively, Abalin said, “That wasn’t my fault, it was—”  
“Try the pantry in the wine cellar,” Hux interrupted wearily.   
“The pantry in the _what?”_ Poe said, already on his feet.  
Hux shook his head. “I’m going to see if there’s anything the Ren haven’t destroyed that might be useful.”  
“What do the rest of us do?” Rey said.  
“Make yourselves at home, I suppose,” Hux said snidely, and swept out of the room.


	38. Chapter 38

Now that Hux was alone, the halls of Wreavenwood felt oppressively silent. He’d made his way from the sitting room to the eastern wing, walking restlessly through a series of lounges and drawing rooms. Hux opened one door after another, not looking for anything in particular, trying to quell the sense of being unwelcome here. In one room, he found a broken holo, still operational after years of abandonment. It flickered in the dark room, casting up a sputtering, distorted image of a broadcast declaring the fall of the Empire.   
He knew Finn and Rey had followed Poe to the wine cellar—he’d heard them arguing over who would be the first to go down the staircase—and wondered, absently, what Abalin had found to do while left to his own devices.  
Hux’s pace slowed, and then stopped. He listened, but the bond was suspiciously quiet. With a resigned sigh, Hux turned abruptly from his path and started down another corridor.  
He’d never spoken to Abalin about the years he’d spent as a child confined to his bed by sickness. But he was certain Abalin had seen it in Hux’s memories.  
Hux had half-expected not to remember the way to his old room, but he found it easily. The door was slightly ajar. Hux pushed it open soundlessly. Abalin was standing at the window, holding back the curtain as he peered outside. Hux studied him in silence for a few moments, then said quietly, “It’s certainly smaller than I remember it.”  
Abalin whipped around, his eyes wide. He let go of the curtain, dampening the sound of rain and faraway thunder. Hux avoided his gaze, taking several steps until he was next to the bed. “I remember thinking that it was an unfair distance from here to the door. I never had the strength to walk the entire way.”  
Abalin was silent. After several moments, Hux turned to him.   
“I thought I would find you here,” he said.   
Abalin’s eyes flickered. “I wanted to see it.”  
“You found out about this the first time we tried the meld.”   
Abalin gave a small nod. After a pause, he added softly, “And sometimes you dream about being here.”  
Hux didn’t respond. He began to search along a small bookshelf, running his hand over its varnished surface. His expression was carefully blank when he paused to inspect the dust that had collected on his fingertips. “At some point, I thought I would never leave this room,” he said. His gaze returned to the bed and lingered a moment longer before he let his hand fall back to his side. “I certainly never expected to be back with the likes of you.”   
“Your father abandoned you here,” Abalin said uneasily.  
“After he was informed that I wasn’t likely to survive my illness. Yes.”  
Abalin reached out to touch Hux’s forearm. “I shouldn’t have come here.”  
He shook his head and, after a brief hesitation, laid his opposite hand over Abalin’s. “I’d have found myself here anyway,” Hux said. He did not resist when Abalin gently pulled him back into the hall, closing the door behind them.  
  
  
  


***  
  
  
  


They returned to the sitting room. Abalin settled onto the couch beside Hux, his head resting on Hux’s shoulder. Before long, Poe appeared in the doorway with a bottle of whiskey in his hand, calling down the hall to Finn, “Well, there have to be glasses around here somewhere—oh, I’m sorry. Am I interrupting?”   
Abalin tensed and started to sit up. Hux placed his arm across Abalin’s shoulders to stay him and said to Poe, “No more than usual. Did you need something?”  
“Ah, well, we found the wine cellar.” Poe held up the bottle. “Can we open this?”  
“Is it an Imperial make with a monogrammed wax seal?”  
“Uh…” Poe squinted at the top of the bottle. “Yeah. ‘B.H. II.’”  
Hux smiled. “Be my guest. Glasses are in the cabinet in the hall.”  
Poe disappeared around the corner, his voice echoing back to them as he shouted, “Rey, Finn, I found them!” He reappeared with an armful of tumblers, which he laid out on the low table at the center of the room. He looked up at Hux and Abalin. “You want one?”  
“Dearly,” Hux said. Abalin shrugged and then nodded resignedly.  
“So B.H. II would be...” Poe said, as Finn and Rey situated themselves on the chairs opposite Abalin and Hux.   
“My father. I’m the third.”  
Abalin considered this for a moment. “Really?”  
“How,” he said in an aggrieved voice, as he accepted a glass from Poe, “could you possibly not know that? You must have seen my name in writing once a day on the _Finalizer_.”  
“Your dog tags just say Brendol Hux.”  
“They also say ‘Republic Army,’ which I thought may be something of a giveaway.”  
“Oh, yeah, about that. We were trying to give Rey a history lesson,” Poe said, sinking back into his own chair after recorking the decanter.   
Abalin and Finn both groaned, although Abalin did so more quietly than Finn.  
“I’m just trying to understand,” Rey said defensively. “Poe was explaining the Empire and the Resistance—”   
“Rebel Alliance,” Poe corrected, taking a sip of his drink. “Wow, that’s good. Is there more of this stuff?”  
Hux assured him there was and provided answers to Rey’s questions, with occasional, vehement contradictions by Poe. At some point, Abalin had wrapped his arm around Hux’s waist. He didn’t notice until he caught Rey smiling at them.  
Several hours and rounds of whiskey later, Hux disentangled himself from Abalin and sighed, “I suppose you’ll want bedrooms.”  
“Can’t we just sleep here?” Rey said, hiding a yawn behind her hand. She curled up in her armchair. “I’m perfectly comfortable.”  
Poe shrugged. “Finn and I could take the couch on the other side.”  
Hux glanced around at them. “There are other rooms—”  
“No,” Rey said stubbornly. “I don’t want to sleep by myself in some other wing anyway. This house is...odd.”  
“Are there any extra blankets?” Poe said hopefully.  
Hux gave a disbelieving shake of his head. “Check one of the armoires,” he said as he started to pull Abalin from the couch.  
“Where are you off to?” Poe asked.  
“A bedroom,” Hux said, with exasperation.  
“Oh,” Poe said, conspiratorially. “Gotcha. Have fun, kids.”   
Hux ignored him and Abalin went pink. Poe cheerfully wished them good night as they left the sitting room.   
Through a yawn, Abalin asked, “Where are we going?”  
“There are suites in the opposite wing that the Ren didn’t reach.” Hux led him to a pair of wooden doors. He was about to step inside when Abalin balked.  
“Whose room was this?” he said warily.  
Impatient, Hux answered, “No one’s. It’s just a guest suite, and there haven’t been guests for two decades.”  
Abalin relented and let Hux draw him inside. The high-ceilinged room had dark-paneled walls and, at its center, a four-poster bed with a canopy.  
Abalin slid under the blankets and quickly began to drift off to sleep. Beside him, Hux managed to fall into an unsettled doze, at least for a while. He found himself starting awake every few minutes to the sound of rain pelting the windows. Hours seemed to crawl by. Finally, when the pale light of dawn appeared, he decided he’d had enough.  
He turned over and found Abalin’s shoulder, shaking it lightly. “Abalin.”   
He mumbled something unintelligible, half rolling towards Hux without waking. Hux repeated his name, and when he barely moved, Hux leaned down and kissed under Abalin’s ear until he felt him stir.   
“Abalin,” Hux breathed when his eyes finally opened.  
Abalin looked up at him, his brows drawing together. “Hux?” he said, reaching up to brush the hair from Hux’s face. “What is it? Are you all right?”  
Hux kissed him. Abalin held Hux’s face as he returned the kiss, his movements sleepy and gentle. He drew in a breath as Hux’s tongue traced along Abalin’s lip, then snapped awake when Hux climbed into his lap and slid his hands under Abalin’s shirt.   
“Wait.” Abalin broke away, a flush rising in his face as he sat up. “What if the others—”  
“You’ll just have to keep quiet,” murmured Hux.   
Hux pulled off Abalin’s shirt, then his own. Abalin laid kisses down Hux’s throat and across his collarbones, pulling Hux closer and wrapping a warm hand around his cock.  
Hux let Abalin bring him close—too close—to the edge. Catching Abalin’s wrist, Hux drew a gasp from Abalin as he ground into his lap. Hux moved off of him and laid his head on the pillows, the sheets cool under him.  
Abalin followed, pulling Hux’s legs around his waist. He pressed inside of Hux, slowly and carefully. Abalin leaned over him, kissing him deeply as he slipped his arms beneath Hux’s back. Hux felt enveloped by him, as if no part of Hux was not touching Abalin.  
Hux’s breath caught in his throat. Abalin’s name was on his lips as he came. Abalin shuddered and his grip around Hux tightened as he finished. As their breathing began to calm, Abalin held Hux protectively, his face buried in the crook of Hux’s neck while Hux brushed his hand through Abalin’s hair.  
Eventually, Abalin shifted to lay at Hux’s side. He kept his arms locked around Hux, and Hux allowed himself to rest his head against Abalin’s chest. They had a few hours yet before morning and in the warmth of Abalin, Hux finally found sleep.


	39. Chapter 39

When Abalin woke, he was alone. The bedroom was unrecognizable to him in the daylight, and he had no memory of the route Hux had taken to bring them here. He pulled on his clothes and boots. After a few moments, he heard voices coming from up the hall and started to follow them.  
As he rounded a corner, he found Hux, Poe, and Finn sitting at one end of a massive dining table. Diffused gray light spilled in through a tall window on the opposite wall. They were in the midst of an involved conversation until Poe caught sight of him.  
“Good morning, Abalin,” he said with a wide grin. “How was your night?”  
Abalin looked to Hux, who did not acknowledge him except to glance judgmentally at his hair.   
“Fine,” Abalin answered.   
“And how was Hux’s night?”  
“Please stop,” Finn complained. “It’s too early for this.”  
Abalin joined them at the table. He looked over at the datapad in Hux’s hands. “What are you doing?”  
“We’re talking about Hux’s cover story,” Poe said. “How he left the Order, where you are, how he ended up on Arkanis. Rey is outside digging the _Falcon_ out of the ground, and BB-8 should be about done fixing it up. Also I made caf.” He pushed a kettle and an empty mug towards Abalin. “All the decent food is in the ship and it’s still raining—”  
“It is always raining,” Hux enunciated without looking up.  
“Yeah. So no real food.”  
Abalin frowned at Hux. “I thought you didn’t even know if Sindian needed you for the encryption yet.”  
“I contacted her earlier and she’s already sent a response. As I expected, she can’t get through the cipher. I’ve arranged to meet with her this evening. She’s nearby, at a vacation home on Mirabeau, a moon of Arkanis.”  
“You know that Snoke might have sent the Ren to keep a watch on Sindian,” Abalin said.  
“You said yourself that you’ll know if they’re nearby. And you’ve proven you can handle the Ren.”  
“My point,” Abalin went on quietly, “is that I hope this...archive, or whatever Sindian has, is worth the risk.”  
“Snoke wouldn’t have sent her and the Ren unless he thought it was worthwhile.” He finally looked up at Abalin. “It would be foolish for us to assume he was wrong.”  
Abalin let out a long breath and nodded.   
Poe didn’t seem to share Abalin’s reluctance. He raised his mug and proclaimed, “To Mirabeau.”


	40. Chapter 40

The wine glittered ruby-black in the low light of Sindian’s parlor. “I have to say, Brendol,” she said, picking up both glasses and handing one to Hux. “You have a way of popping up unexpectedly.”  
Hux accepted the glass with a thin smile. “I’m glad I could reach you. I thought you might have already returned to the fleet.”  
“You caught me at just the right time.” She took a sip of her wine. “I worried I might never see you again, after the debacle with the recording and the Senate. What a pity I had to disappear before we could work together. I should have known better than to trust that degenerate Guavian, Bala-Tik.”  
“I was sorry to learn what had happened. But it seems that you’ve had quite the change of fortune.”  
“I have.” Sindian smiled blithely. “By the way, how did you know I’d been to Wreavenwood so quickly? I expected you’d hear about it sooner or later, but it’s only been a few days.”  
“An old acquaintance told me the condition of the house. Just a lucky guess that it was you.”  
Sindian blinked at him with wide eyes, her gold earrings brushing against her neck. “I am sorry about the mess,” she said. “Your home has always been so lovely. I wanted to be a better guest, but the Knights of Ren—well, they had their own ideas.”  
“Speaking of the Ren, I trust you’ve kept our agreement and they won’t be waiting for me when we’ve finished here?”  
“Oh, you don’t think I told them about this, do you?” she said, with a dismissive wave of her hand. “They’re more brawn than brain, really. I try not to burden them with such complicated matters. But the Ren aside, it was quite brave of you to come to Arkanis. Have you heard the price on your head lately?”  
“I can’t say I have.”  
“700,000 credits from the New Republic. Far greater than mine. And that’s just based on the rumor that you might be alive.”  
He breathed a dark laugh. “Nice to feel wanted.” He arched a brow at her. “And I suppose you’ll be charging a markup on fair market value, since you won’t be getting a bounty for me?”  
A glint came and went in Sindian’s eyes. “If you can do what you say, it’s more than worth the price of your bounty. But we can talk about business later. Before that, you _have_ to tell me—what happened to you? I’ve been trying to find out since I heard that you’d gone, but they’ve been very tight-lipped about you in the Order.”  
“Have they?” Hux said softly. He turned his wineglass in his hands. “I left at the Battle of Naydra. One of my advisors informed me that Snoke blamed me for the loss and planned to remove me from command. So I disappeared.”  
“That seems rather drastic, doesn’t it?” she said with an airy laugh. “Surely you could have remained with the Order in some capacity—”  
“You misunderstand, Carise. Snoke does not demote people and then send them to a different post. I would have been executed.” He watched her face as he spoke. “You’ll learn to tread carefully with the Supreme Leader. Unless you’ve learned already.”  
She looked uncomfortable for a moment before recovering herself. “Well, that certainly makes for a more satisfactory story than the one the Order put out. The official version is that you defected, then were captured and killed by Kylo Ren. Only a handful of people know you’re still alive.”  
“And after this, you’ll be the only one,” Hux said.  
Sindian smiled. “Of course.”  
She strolled to the opposite side of the room, her fingers tracing over her pendant. “It’s such an innocent looking thing that we were searching for. It was concealed inside an old war medal. I never would have found it. One of the Ren did.”  
Hux felt a burst of confusion that was not his own. He found Abalin in his mind and hissed, _Quiet_.  
Sindian turned towards him. “I wonder if you even knew it was there.”  
“I heard the same rumors as everyone else. That my father had found something that he was determined to keep hidden.”  
She studied him, her fingers resting lightly on her pendant. “So you really have no idea what this is?” she mused.  
Hux tilted his head. He crossed the room to stand in front of her. “May I see it?”  
She pulled her hand away. He took a step closer and gently lifted the pendant from her neck. It was a small cylinder, made of lusterless black metal. One end was capped with silver, with a tiny glass sphere embedded in it. A lens of some sort, Hux realized.  
“It’s strange, isn’t it?” Sindian said. “It almost looks like a holoprojector. But I haven’t been able to find a way to activate it.”  
“Yes,” Hux murmured. “It does look that way.” He tilted it slightly and, to his surprise, felt something shift within it.  
Sindian slipped a hand over his. “I hope you won’t disappear too far after this. I’m sure I could use more of your help in the future. And besides, I know you, Brendol. I expect civilian life will bore you quickly.”  
Hux was still for several moments, his fingertips tracing minutely over the pendant. A very small smile touched his mouth. “Do you think so?”  
“I do.” Her eyes flickered over his face. “But I think I could keep you occupied.”  
Hux leaned in towards her and stopped just before his lips met hers. He paused there and watched her face, her eyes already closed and head tilted up towards him. His hand closed around the pendant. “You know, I thought that after I ensured the recording of our conversation reached the Senate, it would be the last time I ever had to see you,” Hux said quietly. “But I’m glad I was wrong. This is much better.”  
Sindian’s eyes flew open. She stared at him blankly, her face still just inches from his. “What?”  
“I baited you into declaring allegiance to me and then had you forced into exile for it,” he hissed. “I knew you were vain enough to believe that I would allow you a place in the First Order. It was simple. And so was this.” He tugged sharply on the pendant and the chain around Sindian’s neck snapped.  
She was motionless for a beat. Then, swiftly, she reached for the holster hidden within his jacket. The muzzle of his blaster pressed into his chest. “I need that back, Brendol,” she said, her voice shaking with rage.  
He looked into her eyes and smiled. “Go on, Carise,” he said, his voice low. “Kill me.”  
A look of confusion, then suspicion, went fleetingly across her face. She squeezed the trigger.  
There was a muted, empty click. Hux’s smile widened.  
“Damn you,” she hissed. “I should have had you sent away to rot with your mother when I had the chance.”  
He leaned in, the barrel of his blaster digging sharply between his ribs, and spoke in a murmur against her ear. “For your own sake, you probably should have.” His hand shot out and closed, vice-like, on her wrist. With a short cry, she dropped the blaster to the ground.  
They both made a bid for it but Hux came up with the gun. He fell back several steps, leveling the blaster, the broken chain dangling from his hand.  
_Hux,_ Abalin’s voice suddenly burst into his mind, charged with urgency. _Leave now. The Ren are here.  
_ Hux adjusted his grip on the blaster. “It seems you have other company, Carise.”  
Sindian’s eyes widened, her expression suddenly frantic. She opened her mouth but before she could speak, there was a deafening roar outside the window.   
Hux’s head snapped towards the sound. Skimming low above the tops of the trees, a black First Order command shuttle was about to touch down in front of Sindian’s house.   
He spun back towards Sindian, but she had vanished. Hux let the blaster fall to his side with a curse.  
_Leave her,_ said Abalin. _Come out to the grounds. I’ll meet you there._


	41. Chapter 41

The _Falcon_ was sheltered behind a ridge, in a thicket of slender trees with heads of bristled fronds. Poe and Finn had remained in the ship while Abalin and Rey hid on the outskirts of Sindian’s estate, waiting for Hux.   
As soon as Abalin had sensed the Ren, he told Rey to stay out of sight while he went to find Hux. Now, alone and uneasy, Rey concentrated on the last instruction Abalin had given her before he left: keeping her mind concealed to avoid being detected by the Ren.  
She listened for Abalin or Hux’s approach. The night air was balmy, perfumed by the flowerbeds that edged the property. After several minutes of unsettling silence, she inched around the corner of the house to get a view of the Ren’s shuttle.  
The grounds were still, the house silent. Rey sank back into the shadows, letting out a terse breath. Suddenly, the hairs on the back of her neck rose. She spun and found herself looking into wide, pale eyes just inches from her face.  
“Young Rey,” Vaelys whispered, “I had hoped to see you again.”  
Rey staggered backwards into the open, drawing her lightsaber and casting Vaelys in fierce blue light. Vaelys followed her, taking measured steps but not yet withdrawing her own saber. Her eyes glimmered beneath the dark veil of her hair as she drew closer.  
Rey let her get within two paces before she finally lunged, bringing the saber down in a quick diagonal slash. Vaelys lifted a hand and the saber glanced away from her outstretched palm, sliding off of the empty air.  
Rey spun to face Vaelys again. She lunged a second time, and Vaelys slipped just beyond the stroke of the saber.  
Vaelys looked almost disappointed. “You only want to fight with the saber. Show me your Light, chosen one.”  
As Rey lifted the blade, she saw the flash of Vaelys’s open palm before she was thrown to the ground and felt her muscles lock in place. But it was only a matter of seconds before she broke free—she’d been able to escape Abalin’s holds a few times, and Vaelys’s grip was not nearly as strong as his.  
The exhilaration of her success was short-lived. Too late, Rey understood that the physical attack was a decoy. A rush of icy panic stabbed through her as she realized Vaelys was in the whole of her mind, and there was nothing Rey could do about it.  
Blackness began to shroud Rey’s vision. She had felt Abalin manipulate her mind, but Vaelys seemed to manipulate the reality around her. The house, which now appeared impossibly far away, grew dim.  
Vaelys ran a hand over Rey’s hair, and Rey found that she could not pull away as her senses grew more and more fragmented. “Leader Snoke wanted to turn you, but it would be a shame to sully such perfect Light. I hope you die with all your innocence and certainty. Unmarked.”  
Rey could feel Vaelys digging into her mind—not into her memories, but down to the core of her, down to a depth of Light that Rey hadn’t even known was there.  
“You are better prepared than I expected,” Vaelys murmured, her voice echoing in Rey’s ears, surrounding her from every direction. “Did Master Kylo warn you about me? Did he tell you what I would do?”  
The darkness in Rey’s vision began to pool and shift, smudging the definite lines of the shuttle and the estate beyond it.  
“Would you like to see how wicked he was before you?” Vaelys breathed.   
A whimper escaped Rey as she made a final bid to throw Vaelys from her mind. Then the blackness over Rey’s vision solidified, dampening sight and sound and all of her other senses so that she was deaf, weightless, floating.  
Nearby, Abalin’s lightsaber ignited in a rush of red light.   
Details filled in around it: first Abalin himself—Kylo, robed in black. Around him, trees draped in pale purple blossoms, with gentle hills rolling away into the distance. There were others around him—Vaelys and Ghodous and Irizar—all watching silently as Kylo dropped a dead man to the ground.  
_“Burn the village,”_ Kylo said, his voice low. _“And kill anything in reach.”  
_ Rey tried to scream as she watched the villagers plead for their lives, only to be met with scorn. Kylo killed each of them with a single stroke of his lightsaber, until blood stained the mossy ground a sickening shade of scarlet.  
Kylo turned to her. The landscape around him seemed to waver as he started to stride towards her. She scrambled away from him, losing her footing as she tried to turn and run.  
“Rey,” Kylo said.  
“Get away from me,” she snarled, fumbling for her saber.  
Kylo closed the distance between them. He shoved her to the ground, and a shower of red sparks fell on her. She shielded her face, and when she opened her eyes, the chaos of the massacred village had been replaced by Mirabeau. Abalin was standing over her, his saber locked with Vaelys’s, holding it at bay above Rey’s head.  
“Go,” he said urgently.  
Rey rolled away in time to see Abalin’s saber drop in the exact space she had been a moment before. He raised his saber and brought it down against Vaelys’s with such strength that it was torn from her hands. As she recoiled, his blade split open a gash across her shoulder.  
“Master Kylo,” she gasped, a note of pleading in her voice.  
“Don’t,” Abalin hissed. When he struck at her again, his saber was halted against another blade of dark red.  
Abalin was thrown back. He caught his footing and then lifted his eyes.  
Irizar stood before him, smiling wolfishly. “Master Kylo. Did you think me so easily defeated?”


	42. Chapter 42

Abalin stepped back, his saber held out before him. Behind Irizar, Vaelys slowly got to her feet and retreated to the shuttle, where Ghodous waited at the end of the causeway. Beside him, Sindian stood with her hands bound, her eyes darting around the grounds.   
“I came here to find out what secrets our Grand Vizier has been trying to keep from Leader Snoke,” Irizar said. “But I’m pleased to find you here as well.” His saber thrummed at his side. “I intend to finish what I started.”  
Keeping his eyes locked on Irizar’s, Abalin said to Rey in a low voice, “Find Hux and get to the _Falcon_.”  
Rey hesitated. “What about you?”  
Irizar began to advance towards them and Abalin raised his saber. “Now,” Abalin barked.  
Their sabers struck against each other as Rey broke into a run towards the house. Irizar delivered one blow after another, but Abalin held off each strike. Their blades flared against one another in bursts of crimson. The moment Irizar’s attacks slowed, Abalin swung his saber towards him, his blade searing just inches from Irizar’s face.  
Irizar fell back with a sneer. “You’ve gotten stronger.” Mockingly, he said, “Have you finally found the redemption you so desperately sought? Are you the hero of Light that you always wished to become?”  
Irizar swung at him from overhead. Abalin blocked him, more narrowly than before, and Irizar pushed until his blade slipped and landed at the crossguards of Abalin’s saber. Their faces were so close together that Abalin could see each detail in the mutilated flesh of Irizar’s scar.  
“Don’t you tire of running?” Irizar spat. “Surely, your cowardice has an end.”  
“I’m finishing this now,” Abalin said through his teeth. He twisted his saber out of the lock, shoving backwards as he spun out from under Irizar’s blade. He followed with a harsh lunge before Irizar had recovered, forcing him to fall back. With a few paces between them, Abalin braced for Irizar’s next advance.  
A blaster shot streaked across the grounds. Irizar spun his saber in a flash of motion, deflecting the bolt into the ground. He pivoted and thrust his hand towards the source of the bolt.  
Abalin turned and froze. Hux was at the opposite corner of the house, struggling against Irizar’s grip. Abalin sensed the cold surge of fear in him.  
“General Hux.” Irizar’s lips curled. “Kind of you to join us.”  
“No,” Abalin shouted, lunging forward.  
Irizar cast a percussive wave of Force energy at him, sending him sprawling to the ground. “You will watch this,” Irizar snarled.  
In the hand directed at Hux, a formless black mist began to grow. Slowly, it took the shape of a seething orb in his palm. The orb launched from Irizar’s hand and struck Hux’s side.  
Irizar released his hold on Hux with a cold laugh. Hux managed to stagger a few steps, looking up towards Abalin as his hand reached towards his side. Then he collapsed.  
In the part of Abalin that belonged to his bond with Hux, there was a sudden, inescapable silence.   
Abalin’s vision blurred, faded, spun. A scream tore from his throat, piercing through the emptiness in his mind. His anguish blinded him, engulfed him, intensifying until it was more than he could contain.  
A fierce crackling began. The wind was pulled from its course to Abalin himself, swirling at his feet. Flashes of blue and white sparked between his hands.  
Lightning erupted from him before he knew what it was. It arced from Abalin and connected with Irizar, the impact throwing him to the ground. Irizar screamed as his body was wreathed in veins of electricity. His face was washed in cold blue light, his expression terrified, reverent, then still.  
The crackling pulses of lightning guttered and disappeared. Abalin dropped to his knees. He swayed, his eyes stinging and lungs burning.  
His voice was too weak to make a sound. _Hux_.  
He dragged himself to his feet and stumbled towards the place where Hux lay unmoving. He saw Rey running towards him, her voice distant and indistinct. Before she reached him, unconsciousness slipped over him like a veil and everything went dark.


	43. Chapter 43

Abalin woke slowly, blinking against the dim lights overhead. He recognized his surroundings as a room in the medical wing of the Akroma base. His vision cleared gradually, and a silhouette just inside the door resolved into Rey. Her expression warmed as she approached his bedside, taking a seat next to him.  
“Abalin,” she said. “You’re awake.”  
He shifted and felt a stinging pain race along his arms and hands. He lifted them carefully from beneath the blankets and found a network of raised burns delicately lacing his skin, from his shoulders down to his fingertips.  
“Hux,” he said hoarsely. He sat up straight, shoving off the covers as he started to rise from the bed.   
Rey put her hand on his chest and pushed him back down. “He’s all right,” she said with a small smile. “Still unconscious, but he seems to be getting better.”  
“He’s alive,” Abalin said, numbly.  
“Yes, of course.”   
“Where is he?”  
“Here in the infirmary. Luke healed him.” She paused, her smile falling away. “Do you remember what happened?”  
Abalin was silent, trying to piece together the few disjointed flashes of memory he could summon. “I saw Hux fall. And then…” He shook his head.   
“You created lightning,” she said softly. “You killed Irizar. It was—Abalin, it was unbelievable. But…”   
After a brief hesitation, she held out her hands towards him. In one of them was a twisted piece of metal that he barely recognized as the hilt of his lightsaber. In the other, a crumbling, blackened stone. His kyber crystal.  
“I went back to get it after we brought you to the _Falcon_. The lightning destroyed it.” Rey smoothed her thumb over the scorched crystal. “I tried to see if there was anything left in it.” She shook her head. “I’m so sorry, Abalin,” she whispered.  
He held out his hand and she slid the crystal from her palm into his. He inspected it gingerly. It had shattered outward from the crack he’d put in it when he tried to bleed it, and its surface was now marred with tiny fractures. A few pieces broke away as he ran his fingertips over its face.   
“Maybe there’s a way to bring it back?” she suggested.  
“I don’t think so,” Abalin answered quietly. Desperate for a chance that he might be wrong, he closed his fingers around the crystal and concentrated on it, listening closely to see if there was any trace of the Force left within it.  
He could hear nothing coming from the crystal. But as he drew his attention outward, to Rey in front of him and the rest of the base around him, he realized he could hear nothing of the Force at all.  
Panic jolted through him. “Something’s wrong.”  
A frown creased Rey’s face. “What?”  
“Can you sense me in the Force?” he asked, his voice tight. He watched her face and shook his head. “You can’t, can you?”  
She fell silent for a few moments. “No,” she admitted.  
He squeezed his eyes shut and reached instinctively for his bond with Hux, the most stable thing in his mind. But that, too, was gone.  
“I don’t understand—” His lungs seemed to constrict as he tried to sit up again.  
“Abalin, you’ll hurt yourself,” she said gently, laying a hand on the side of his face. “Just try to calm down.”   
He forced himself to take a few deep breaths, jarred by the concern in Rey’s eyes. He relaxed onto the bed slightly, and Rey drew back her hand from his face. She watched him carefully while Abalin grappled with this new, eerily deep stillness.   
When he spoke again, his voice was flat. “I need to see him.”  
Rey looked reluctant. “You should rest.”  
“Please, Rey.”   
She hesitated, then gave a defeated sigh. She stood to help him up from the bed, letting him lean on her for support.  
Rey guided him down the corridor and into a room halfway down the hall. Luke was standing at the side of Hux’s bed. Leia was in a chair in a corner of the room, but she rose as the two of them appeared at the door. She came forward to put a hand on Abalin’s arm.   
“Ben,” she said chidingly. “You shouldn’t be up.”   
Abalin didn’t answer, his eyes flickering over her shoulder. Reluctantly, Leia released her hold on Abalin, and in an instant, he was knelt at Hux’s bedside. Luke looked on as Abalin carefully twined his fingers into Hux’s.   
“Irizar used an ancient Sith power against him,” Luke said. “It’s a form of attack that leaves dark energy trapped inside the wound. But the energy seems to be gone, and the wound is healing on its own now.” He paused. “He’s still weak, but I’ve done what I can. Now we’ll have to wait and see.”  
Abalin nodded, his thumb twitching over the back of Hux’s hand. “Thank you.”  
In a low voice, Luke said, “Ben. Your connection to the Force.”  
Abalin ducked his head. “It’s gone,” he said quietly. “When I woke up, I just...didn’t have it.”   
“It must be because of the lightning,” Rey said. She glanced to Luke. “Right?”  
“It’s possible,” Luke said slowly. “Lightning is the greatest manifestation of the power of the Dark Side. Have you ever done anything like that before?”  
“No. Never.”  
“A sudden, uncontrolled surge of energy like that could have created a block in your access to the Force.”  
Dully, Abalin asked, “Is it permanent?”  
“Maybe not.” Luke hesitated. “I’ll meditate on what I’ve read in the Ahch-To libraries. There might be a way to restore it.”  
Abalin pillowed his head on his arm, avoiding the worst of the burns. He was dimly aware of Leia and Rey exchanging glances over him, but he didn’t raise his eyes from Hux.  
He started slightly when Leia touched a hand to his shoulder. He turned towards her and she bent to wrap him in a hug. “We’ll figure something out. Promise you’ll try to get some rest,” she said.  
Abalin nodded. Leia beckoned to Luke and the two of them left the room. Rey lingered, watching as Abalin settled back against Hux’s bed.   
“Let me know if I can help,” Rey said quietly.  
He gave another small nod. Then he was alone with Hux and the pressing silence in his mind.  
  
  
  


***  
  
  
  


Hux awoke a few hours later. Abalin had hardly moved, his fingers still threaded through Hux’s.   
His voice was thick. “Abalin?”  
Abalin’s head snapped up, a small laugh of relief escaping him. “You’re all right.”  
“It seems so.” Hux looked at him, dazed. “What happened?”   
“The last thing I remember is seeing you fall,” he admitted. “Rey told me that after Irizar attacked you, I...I made lightning.”  
Hux’s eyes fell to the red lines branching down Abalin’s forearms. “Lightning,” Hux repeated, delicately tracing the marks across Abalin’s wrists. “How the hell did you do that?”  
“I don’t know,” he mumbled.  
Hux’s eyes flickered over Abalin’s face, and his expression clouded. Slowly, Hux said, “Why can’t I hear you?”  
Abalin shook his head. “My connection to the Force, it’s—” He swallowed. “It’s gone.”   
Hux’s expression grew steadily more perturbed as he looked back at Abalin. “How do we get it back?”  
“I don’t know. Luke said he would try to help.” Abalin took Hux’s hands, ignoring the sting of the burns on his palms. “I thought I lost you,” Abalin whispered.  
Hux pulled him closer to rest his forehead against Abalin’s. “You didn’t.”   
Abalin let his eyes fall closed. Neither of them spoke until Hux asked, “What happened to Sindian?”  
He glanced up at Hux. “I saw the Ren taking her into their shuttle.”  
From his pocket, Hux pulled out the slim metal cylinder, still attached to the chain Sindian had worn around her neck. He let it rest in his palm. “I don’t envy her next meeting with Snoke.”


	44. Chapter 44

Ghodous’s grip on Sindian’s elbow was crushing as he brought her into the Holochamber. Snoke awaited them, his eyes fixed on Sindian as they approached.   
Ghodous and Vaelys ascended the dais with Sindian between them. She stumbled as Ghodous shoved her forward. “She was meeting with General Hux in secret,” he said sharply. “After we found the object you tasked us to retrieve, she allowed the general to steal it from her. It is lost to us now, in the hands of the Resistance.”  
“She is responsible for the death of Irizar,” Vaelys cried, a feverish tremor in her voice.   
“Please, Supreme Leader,” Sindian began in a placating simper. “Let me explain—”  
“What is it you wish to explain that I do not already know?” Snoke’s voice was harsh and cold. “You assured me that you could find the artifact that the elder Hux had hidden. Instead, you delivered it into the hands of the traitorous general and the Resistance. And worst of all, your failures have resulted in the death of my most valuable servant.”  
“It is not any fault of mine that Kylo Ren was able to kill Irizar,” Sindian retorted. “I needed General Hux to unlock the encryption. If the Ren had not interfered, I could have—”  
“Enough,” Snoke hissed, rising to his feet. Sindian steadied herself from falling back a step. “There would have been no cause for Irizar to engage with Kylo Ren if you had not lied about your intentions.”  
Sindian did not offer a response. When he spoke again, his tone was dangerously muted. “I have little use for liars. And even less for those who fall short of their word. This is something you would do well to remember, if you plan to stay very long in your new station.”   
“You have my most sincere apologies, Supreme Leader. I ask your forgiveness,” Sindian said, without quite meeting his gaze.  
Snoke regarded her in silence. Then, in a slow rumble, he said, “I sense you are not accustomed to taking responsibility for your mistakes, Grand Vizier. You should know that as long as you answer to me, failure has consequences.” A mirthless smile began to spread across his face.   
Sindian felt a pressure building in the back of her skull, imbued with a boundless malice she couldn’t understand.   
“Tell me, Carise Sindian,” Snoke rasped. “What do you know of the Dark Side?”


	45. Chapter 45

After several days, the deep ache in Hux’s side had abated enough for Hux to leave the infirmary. Olivine had tried to talk him out of it and Abalin protested until he’d nearly worked himself into a panic. In the end, Hux had pointedly snapped that he’d rather not spend any more time confined to a sickbed if he could avoid it, and Abalin relented.   
Though the pain had begun to subside, a sense of disquieting unease had lingered. Even without being able to hear Hux’s thoughts, it didn’t take long for Abalin to notice that something was amiss. When he asked Hux what was wrong, Hux had haltingly likened it to the first days after the meld that had gone so awry back on the _Finalizer_. His answer had only made Abalin more concerned. But Hux steadfastly brushed off Abalin’s worries and did his best to ignore the persistent malaise.  
With Abalin following overbearingly close behind him, Hux made his way to the command room. It was full of its usual chaos: crowded with officers dodging past each other, the mechanical chirps of droids and consoles, static-bleached voices drifting through comm lines. Leia, Poe, and Finn caught sight of Hux as he entered, their expressions turning to surprise.  
“Shouldn’t you be in the infirmary?” Finn asked.  
“Yes,” Hux said bluntly.  
Finn looked to Abalin, confused. Abalin sighed, “He insisted.”  
Hux found an empty seat at the center console. Wincing, he settled into the chair while Abalin hovered behind him.   
“We haven’t made any progress with whatever you got from Sindian,” Leia said. “I’ve never seen an encryption like this before.”  
“May I have it?” Hux asked.  
Leia nodded, and BB-8 appeared from behind her, rolling towards Hux. A latch popped open and he extended a mechanical arm, holding the cylinder out. Hux accepted it and BB-8 gave a series of exuberant chirps.  
“He says he’s glad to see you’re okay,” Poe translated with a broad smile.  
Hux withheld a sigh. “Thank you,” he said, then turned his attention to the cylinder. He held it up to the light, studying it from every angle as if there were any he hadn’t seen yet.  
“BB-8 can’t read it,” said Finn. “It doesn’t even look like First Order codage.”   
“No, it wouldn’t be,” Hux mused.  
“Maybe your fingerprint?” Poe suggested. “Like your blaster?”  
Hux gave him a flat look. He pressed the cylinder between his fingers. “Apparently not.”  
They continued to bandy ideas among themselves, but Hux ignored them and inspected the cylinder more closely. On the opposite end of the silver cap, there was a tiny magnetic reader, apparently part of the security mechanism. Intrigued, Hux contemplated what it would have been programmed to scan. Something that Sindian didn’t have, and couldn’t get. Something that had been his father’s.  
Hux’s mind drifted back to Wreavenwood, the room where the Ren had found this. It had been tucked away amidst the war medals, the commendations won by his father and by his grandfather. The possessions his father treasured most.  
Except for the one he’d given to Hux himself, back when he was still proud that they shared a name.  
Hux hesitated for a moment, feeling almost foolish for entertaining the idea. He cast a quick glance around him. Abalin had been drawn into a conversation with Finn, Leia, and Poe as they debated other experimental methods to break the encryption.  
He found the chain of his dog tags under his shirt and quickly pulled them over his head. He traced over the chain, pausing at the slightly messy soldered link where he’d repaired it after Abalin—Ren—had broken it. Uncertainly, he held the dog tags in front of the cylinder.  
A line of light spilled outward from the reader and, in a single neat sweep, passed over the face of the tag. The top of the cylinder slid open, revealing a hollow interior. Hux had time to catch a glimmer of something within it before the glass lens flickered and cast up a blue-tinted holo of Hux’s father.   
The recording seemed to start while he was already speaking. Hux placed the cylinder upright on the table, righting the angle of the projection. As the others in the room began to notice it, they fell silent and drew in towards the table so they could watch. Hux ignored them and leaned in.  
_“—was never meant for me. I should have destroyed it. The moment it was given to me I should have destroyed it. But now—now it’s too late. I can’t be found with it or they’ll call me a traitor for keeping it secret this long. I can’t let anyone else have it. I can’t tell anyone what it is.  
_ _“One of his servants came to me with the crystal. He told me...he told me his master is not real. That thing they all talk to, it’s a projection, but not even a projection of a real body. There is no real body. Nothing. Nothing to kill. But the crystal...I don’t know how, but it can be used to destroy him. To destroy Snoke.”  
_ His head snapped to the side as if he had seen something, his eyes wide with an acute, unhinged panic.  
_“No one can ever know I have it. Snoke can’t know I have it. I’m sealing it away here. Once it’s closed, I won’t be able to open it again. I’ve programmed it that way. Once it’s sealed, then...then it’s his.  
_ _“The boy—the boy has the key. If the crystal is discovered—he will be blamed. Not me. Not me.”_ He leaned in closer to the recorder and spoke in a gravelly, terrified whisper. _“The crystal won’t be mine anymore, once it’s sealed. And then it will leave me alone.”  
_ The whole command room had gone still, every eye fixed on either Hux or the holo. Leia was standing at the front of the crowd. “You figured out how to unlock it,” she said.  
Hux nodded and reached for the holoprojector. “There was a compartment inside...” He tilted the cylinder forward in his palm and a small stone spilled out. He held it up.   
Abalin stepped around Leia, a slight frown on his face, and Hux handed the stone over to him. “It’s a kyber crystal,” Abalin said quietly. He glanced between Hux and Leia. “Why would one crystal be so powerful against Snoke?”  
The image of Hux’s father abruptly vanished. Hux could hear a dissonant static buzz, as if the holo were still playing. “Strange,” Hux murmured. “That usually happens if there was already a recording on the chip when—”   
Another image appeared, this one of a woman about the same age as Hux. She held her hands folded in front of her, each word soft but precise.  
_“Brendol, this message is for you. I don’t have much time. I’m recording this because I want you to know the truth. I’m not sure what they’re going to tell you, about me and about where I’ve gone. But please know—”  
_ Her composure wavered, and for a moment she looked into the holorecorder with heartbreak in her eyes. She drew a breath and when she went on, her voice was once again level and strong.  
_“Please know that I would never choose to leave you. I’ll be sent away, and I won’t be able to contact you without putting you in grave danger. But no matter how far apart we are, there will never be a day that I don’t think of you.  
_ _“My dear, I’m so sorry I won’t get to say goodbye. I hope you get the chance to see this message. And maybe, someday, I’ll see you again.  
_ _“I pray that the Force will always guide your path, Brendol. Even if you forget me, I will be with you.”  
_ The image froze.   
“Who was that?” Poe said into the total silence. He turned towards Hux when he didn’t answer. “Hux?”  
Without moving his eyes from the holo, Hux managed, “My mother.”  
Leia cast a brief glance at him and then looked up at the rest of the room, most of them still frozen in place. She barked, “What are the rest of you looking at? The comm lines aren’t going to monitor themselves.”   
The command room erupted with voices as the crowd’s attention finally left Hux. He managed to drag his eyes away from the holo long enough to reach forward and turn off the projector, his hand closing around the empty cylinder. Ignoring the renewed stab of pain in his side, he pulled himself to his feet.   
Abalin took a half step to follow him. Hux saw Leia touch a hand to his elbow, murmuring something in an undertone that sounded like, “Give him a minute.”  
Not meeting their eyes, Hux dodged past them out of the command room.


	46. Chapter 46

_“I pray that the Force will always guide your path, Brendol. Even if you forget me, I will be with you.”  
_ Hux was in his and Abalin’s quarters, sitting on the edge of the bed with his back to the door. The only light came from the holo. When the recording ended, he let it cycle back to the beginning.  
_“Brendol, this message is for you. I don’t have much time…”  
_Some slight movement near the door suddenly jarred him. He realized without turning around that Abalin was standing behind him, and that he had no idea how long Abalin had been there.   
Hux’s expression darkened. Very slowly, he reached forward and switched off the holoprojector. The image of his mother flickered away.  
Abalin took a few steps towards him. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to intrude.”   
Hux said nothing and made no move to face him.   
“No one had seen you since you left the command room, and I thought I would…” He trailed off into nervous silence that stretched for an uncomfortably long time. Then, in a rush, Abalin started, “Hux, I’m sorry that you found it like that, I know you must—”  
“No. Don’t do that,” Hux said icily. He finally turned to Abalin, his face twisted into a grimace. “I am not a child in need of consolation. I do not want your sympathy. I suppose you consider yourself an expert on family affairs now, but your credentials are rather poor.”  
The sting of Hux’s words showed on Abalin’s face. Hux let out a sharp breath and turned away from him, back towards the holoprojector.  
Abalin lingered near the doorway. After a few moments, he came forward to sit beside Hux, not quite near enough to be touching him.   
Neither of them spoke for a long time. Abruptly, Hux dragged a hand through his hair and said in a brusque voice, “I don’t even want to watch the damn holo. I just can’t leave it.”  
Abalin asked, “What was her name?”  
Hux didn’t look at him. “Wyn Lantrae.”  
“Sindian had her sent away,” Abalin said carefully.  
“When we were children, she reported my mother as a Force sensitive to Project Harvester. To my father. I never saw her again.” He faltered. “She must have been taken away before she could give me this holo. It probably sat in one of those studies for ten years before my father used it.”  
Abalin said nothing. It was unsettling, feeling Abalin’s eyes on him without hearing the echo of Abalin’s emotions. He suddenly found himself wishing that Abalin could enter his mind and bring a much-needed stillness to his thoughts. When Abalin slid his hand a little closer to Hux’s, letting their fingers overlap, Hux didn’t pull away.  
Hux went on, barely hearing himself speak. “They told me she was a traitor.” He shook his head as he felt the first tears trail down his face. “I believed them.”  
Abalin wrapped his arms around him, holding him fiercely as he pressed his mouth to Hux’s temple. Hux leaned into Abalin’s chest while Abalin’s fingers gently ran through his hair.  
They stayed like that for a long time. Finally Hux straightened up, squaring his shoulders. Abalin hesitated, then reached into the pocket of his vest and extracted Hux’s dog tags. He held them out. “You left them in the command room.”  
Hux ducked his head so that Abalin could slip the chain around his neck. Very lightly, Abalin’s fingertips traced along the chain until they rested on the dog tags themselves. Hux covered Abalin’s hand with his own.   
Another twinge of pain shot through the wound at Hux’s side. Abalin must have seen it on his face. “You should rest,” he said quietly.   
Hux nodded, suddenly too tired to protest. He let Abalin pull Hux against him as they lay down. The unease that had stayed with him since Mirabeau wasn’t gone, but for now, at least, it was quiet.


	47. Chapter 47

Abalin stood in the room that had become Luke’s makeshift study, filled with texts he’d brought with him from Ahch-To. He caught sight of the holocron he had given Luke amid the stacks of manuscripts.  
“Have you found anything?” Abalin asked listlessly.   
“Maybe,” Luke said. “It seems that some Jedi have restored their connection to the Force by visiting an extremely strong nexus of energy. Initially, I thought that we should go back to Ahch-To. That nexus was so strong that it drew the first Jedi to build their temples there. But as Snoke began to weaken the Light, its power faded. Now, it wouldn’t be enough. However—”  
Luke shuffled through the papers laid out on the table in front of them. Abalin watched him, peering at the texts and trying to check his curiosity. Luke found what he was looking for and handed a delicate parchment to Abalin.  
“This chart shows a planet in the Deep Core. The texts say that the Force is so strong there, it can be seen shimmering in the skies.” He glanced up at Abalin. “It’s called Aul-Zhana.”  
Abalin ran his fingers over the ancient ink. “Aul-Zhana,” he repeated. After a brief pause, he said, “The crystal that Hux’s father had hidden. Could Rey use it to make a lightsaber of her own?”  
Luke seemed surprised. He thought for a few moments. “It would be difficult with that crystal, since it didn’t choose her.”  
“But if the Force is as powerful on Aul-Zhana as the texts say…”  
“Then it could be possible for her to bond with it there,” Luke finished, nodding. “With so few places to get a kyber crystal now, this might be the best chance she has to make a lightsaber.” He met Abalin’s eyes. “Aul-Zhana could be exactly what both of you need.”  
Abalin drew a breath to ask another question when the door flew open and Rey stumbled in.   
“Abalin,” she gasped, panic on her face. “Come with me.”  
Abalin got to his feet and Luke asked, “What’s wrong?”  
“It’s Hux.”  
  
  
  


***  
  
  
  


Inside the infirmary room, Abalin dropped to Hux’s side. He took Hux’s hand and squeezed it tightly, but there was no response.   
“What happened?” he asked, his voice wavering as he glanced up to Olivine and Leia standing over him.  
“He collapsed in the command room,” Leia explained quietly. “He’s stable, for now.”  
“It’s the injury he got on Mirabeau,” Olivine said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s...spreading.”   
Abalin stared at the wound above Hux’s hip, where the veins beneath the skin had turned black. It was much worse now than the last time Abalin had seen it. A dizzying wave of fear swept over him.  
He stood abruptly and rounded on Luke, leaving little space between them. “You said you healed him,” he snarled. “You said that he was fine.”  
“He _was_ fine,” Luke answered. “The wound was closed—”   
“Then what’s happening to him?” Abalin’s voice cracked.  
“I don’t know.” Luke carefully stepped around Abalin to Hux’s side. Abalin watched, his jaw set, as Luke inspected the wound. He held his hand above it and closed his eyes. His expression darkened. “There must still be Force energy trapped in the wound. It will poison him if it isn’t drawn out.”  
Abalin stared at him. “Can you do that?”  
Gruffly, Luke said, “Not here. He’ll have to come with us to Aul-Zhana.”  
“If there’s Force energy trapped in the wound, won’t that make him worse? Bringing him into a nexus that strong?”  
“It might,” Luke said. “But it also might be the only way to save him. We’ll have the best chance of healing him there, where our connection to the Force is strongest. If we don’t...” Luke’s eyes met Leia’s and he fell silent.  
Abalin’s breathing felt suddenly too shallow as his eyes flickered over Hux’s face. Leia laid her hand on his shoulder. “He’ll be all right, Ben,” she said softly. Then she looked back up at Luke. “Everything is ready for you four to leave now. Let’s get you on your way.”


	48. Chapter 48

The journey to Aul-Zhana was subdued. Even when Abalin and Rey were both in the cockpit, there was an uncharacteristic quiet between them, with none of their usual bickering over the _Falcon’s_ questionable mechanics. While the ship was on autopilot, Rey spent most of her time with Luke, studying maps and plotting the fastest, safest route through the perilous Deep Core.   
As much as he could, Abalin stayed near Hux. With no way to reach him in his mind, Abalin was left to draw what comfort he could from the sound of Hux’s shallow breathing.  
He’d been awake when they moved him from his room in the infirmary to the _Falcon._ For the first day or so, his condition had been steady. But it started to deteriorate quickly as they got farther away from Akroma. He seemed to lapse into a deeper and deeper stupor, rarely staying awake for more than a few minutes at a time.  
After days in hyperspace, they were finally closing in on Aul-Zhana. Abalin had fallen asleep beside Hux’s cot, his head resting on his arms. He woke sometime in the middle of the night to find Hux looking back at him.  
“Abalin,” he said softly.  
Abalin pushed himself upright, immediately hearing the strangeness in Hux’s voice. “Hux? What is it?”  
Hux shook his head slowly and didn’t answer for a long time. When he spoke, his voice was almost lost against the sound of the ship’s engine.   
“You did so much,” he murmured. “I’m sorry it has to go like this, after all.”  
Abalin stared back at him. Then, numbly, he whispered, “No.” He took one of Hux’s hands in both of his own and cradled it against his chest, pressing his face into Hux’s shoulder. “No, no, no. Please.” He was crying and Hux must have hated it, but he couldn’t stop. “Please don’t say it. Please don’t do this.”  
He knew how little strength Hux had but he was stroking Abalin’s hair anyway, like he always did. “Listen to me,” Hux started.  
Abalin shook his head violently, before Hux could say any more. “No. We’re not having this conversation, like it’s already over. It’s not over.”  
Hux looked at him and Abalin couldn’t meet his eyes. “Abalin…”  
“You’ll be fine.” Abalin drew in a shaky breath, swallowing another sob before it could close his throat. “You are going to get better. You’ll be healed on Aul-Zhana.”  
After a painfully long silence, Hux managed a tiny nod. “I’ll try.”  
Abalin nodded back at him, more fiercely. He laid his head on Hux’s chest, careful to avoid the wound. “Just try.”  
He kissed the top of Abalin’s head. Then Hux’s eyes fell closed, and he was asleep once more.  
Abalin would’ve given anything to be able to sink into the flow of Hux’s thoughts, to halt the poison that was nesting deeper into Hux’s body with every breath. But he made himself settle for listening to Hux’s heartbeat, hoping Hux would forgive him for not being able to offer more.  
_I love you_. He thought it over and over again into the silence where Hux’s mind should have been, knowing he couldn’t hear him and wishing beyond reason that he could. _Please don’t give up. I love you.  
  
  
  
_

***  
  
  
  


It was the next night when they arrived on Aul-Zhana. Rey stopped in the middle of the landing sequence, staring out the cockpit window. Abalin, with his hands poised over the control panel, waited for her signal to engage the landing jets. When it didn’t come, he glanced at her and then followed her gaze.  
The surface of the planet was enveloped in auroras. The undulating light was composed of warm purples and pinks at the poles, gradually brightening to blues and greens towards the equator.  
Luke came to join them in the cockpit, his hand on the back of Rey’s seat. He nodded towards the planet’s surface. “The energy of the Force made visible.”  
“It’s beautiful,” Rey breathed.   
“Land at the southern pole,” Luke said, “where the nexus is strongest.”


	49. Chapter 49

The following day, Abalin woke long before anyone else. He didn’t bother trying to fall back asleep, sensing that this was all the rest he was going to get.   
He was still for a few minutes, leaning against the cot where Hux lay. Even while he slept, his face was pinched in a faint grimace of pain. Abalin gently ran his hand over Hux’s hair, pressed his lips to Hux’s forehead, and then soundlessly rose to his feet.  
The _Millennium Falcon_ was dark and silent. He lingered in the cockpit for a few moments. Through the main windows, auroras arced through the sky, casting the world below in prismatic violet light. Then he slipped out of the ship.  
The ground was covered in a layer of unbroken snow. A glittering rime of frost clung to each strand of the tall grasses that dotted the landscape. They’d landed the _Falcon_ along the shore of the world’s frozen southern ocean, and beneath the ice, Abalin could see the glowing pulses of luminescent sea creatures skittering under the surface.  
There was no moon but Abalin navigated easily by the light of the auroras, rhythmically leaping forward across the sky and then gently receding again like a celestial tide. It was the strangest sensation, to see so much of the Force surrounding him but to not feel any of it.  
He made his way to the crest of a hill that overlooked the bay. The _Falcon_ and the trail of his footsteps were behind him. Ahead, the vast plains of translucent ice that covered the sea. Except for the continuous crackle of the auroras, there was complete silence.  
He dusted the snow from a patch of ground, then sat down facing the ocean. He closed his eyes and breathed in, the air piercingly clear and cold in his lungs.  
Meditation was much more difficult without the familiar thrum of the Force to concentrate on. Finally, little by little, his breathing slowed, and the chill of the ground below him began to fade away.  
As his meditation deepened, he realized that he could hear the comforting hum of the Force after all. It was very faint, like listening to someone whisper to him from far away. If he hadn’t known it so well, he might not have heard it at all.  
Suddenly, the presence that had felt distant and far-removed was right in front of him, then closer than that, slipping easily inside his mind.   
Abalin steadied himself. He felt it surveying him and fought back an impulse to shield his thoughts. The longer the presence was there, the more apprehensive Abalin became.  
He couldn’t help but notice that there was something uniquely pure about the feeling of the energy on this planet; it didn’t at all resemble the darkness he’d known in Snoke or the clear Light he felt in Rey. Abruptly, he ached to have his own connection to the Force back, so badly that the Force itself seemed to feel it. He sensed an unspoken question.  
_I was severed from the Force_. He wasn’t sure if it could hear or understand him but all he could think to do was try. Guilt twisted into his stomach. _I lost control of it and now there’s...nothing.  
_ The presence waited, offering no response, so Abalin went on.  
_I made lightning. I don’t understand it._ He tried to stay calm, but his frustration began to break through. _I stopped trying to escape the Light. I left Snoke but somehow that only made the Dark Side stronger in me. I don’t know what I’m supposed to be.  
_ The presence tugged at him. He resisted briefly, unsure what it wanted from him. Then he cautiously let go of his hold on his own mind and let Aul-Zhana draw him away. He saw sweeping landscapes that covered the planet’s surface: vast mountain peaks and the serpentine curves of silver rivers; forests with towering trees and roots that arched up out of the ground so high that Abalin could have stood beneath them; and everywhere the auroras, the Force made visible, kept stable by its own motion.  
He arrived back in his own body gently. The presence echoed his words back to him: _Dark or Light?  
_ Abalin saw immediately how meaningless the distinction was, how arbitrary. The planet was simply a nexus of Force energy, no more and no less, exactly what it needed to be in each moment. At peace within its own unshakeable balance.  
_Neither,_ he realized. _Both.  
_ The presence brushed over his longing for his connection to the Force. It wanted to know why.   
The question left him at a loss. If he gave the wrong answer, he was sure that his connection to the Force would be truly gone.  
_I don’t know_ , he managed softly.  
The presence wavered skeptically. It pressed again on the longing, flooding it through Abalin until he could think of nothing else. Then it asked again: _Why?  
_ This time Abalin didn’t—couldn’t—fight the instinctive answer that came into his mind. If he swallowed his fear, it was easy to respond: _To heal Hux. To teach Rey. To protect my mother and her Resistance. To defeat Snoke.  
_ The unflinching clarity of his answer startled him, but he knew down to his bones that it was the truth. The presence warmed, its approval washing through him. The warmth became a fire, more intense than anything Abalin had ever felt through the Force, like the strength of the entire world of Aul-Zhana was within him.  
He felt some part of himself decisively breaking loose, and his connection to the Force returned to him in a blinding rush. By the time he could catch his breath, the presence had quietly withdrawn from his mind and back into the spectacular tangle of energy that was woven throughout the planet.   
Still reeling, he cautiously reached out, seeking the most familiar energy he knew: _Hux.  
_ For a moment, silence. Then, a disbelieving reply, tumbling forward on a wave of relief: _Abalin?_  
Abalin couldn’t contain a breathless laugh. But his joy faded quickly. As he listened more closely to Hux, Abalin sensed the lingering darkness that Irizar had left in him. Hux was so weak, and fading.  
_Hux_ , he repeated, this time fiercely. He was already on his feet. _I’m coming back._


	50. Chapter 50

When Abalin returned to the _Falcon_ , he found Luke at the edge of the ice, sitting cross-legged with the holocron balanced in his palm. He opened his eyes as Abalin approached him.   
“Ben,” he said, a smile growing on his face. “You got it back?”  
Abalin nodded. “Where’s Rey?”  
“Still working on her lightsaber.” Luke lifted a brow. “Are you going to heal Hux?”  
Abalin set his shoulders. “I’ll try.”  
Luke stashed the holocron into his robes and got to his feet. “I’ll help you,” he said. “Go get him. We should do it out here beneath the auroras, where our connection to the Force is strongest.”  
Abalin looked at him in surprise for a few moments. Then he nodded and ducked inside the _Falcon_. He knelt beside Hux, smiling when he saw that Hux’s eyes were open.  
Abalin pressed his forehead to Hux’s. He breathed in deeply, stealing a moment to appreciate the familiar weight of Hux’s presence in its rightful place in Abalin’s mind.  
“Hux,” he managed. “We’re going to heal you, Luke and I.”  
At the forefront of Hux’s thoughts, a prickle of dread, visceral and sudden, not hidden quickly enough.   
_I’ll make it as fast as I can,_ Abalin promised. Hux pushed his hesitation aside and nodded.   
Abalin slipped his arm around Hux’s middle and helped him sit up, then pulled him to his feet. Hux leaned his weight on Abalin as they walked towards the entrance. “I don’t suppose there’s any point in asking whether this can be done inside the ship,” he said, his voice hoarse.  
“The auroras are extremely powerful currents of the Force. The less there is between us and them, the more likely we’ll be able to heal the wound completely.”  
“I thought not,” Hux murmured.  
Abalin pressed his mouth briefly above Hux’s ear. “We won’t go far.”  
Outside, Luke spread blankets onto the snowy ground. As Hux lay back, Abalin watched the light from the auroras flicker over his face. Hux’s eyes searched across the sky. “It’s beautiful,” he admitted. Abalin could tell from the paleness in his skin that he was already drifting towards unconsciousness.   
Luke and Abalin knelt on either side of Hux. “You’ll have to reopen the wound,” Luke said quietly.  
Abalin’s eyes darted up to him. “I don’t know if he can take that.”  
“We won’t be able to heal him until the darkness poisoning him is exposed.”  
Abalin hesitated, then reached into his vest and procured a small pocket knife he had found on the _Falcon_. He flicked open the thin blade and pulled up one side of Hux’s shirt.   
He drew a long breath. Then he leaned down to press his lips to Hux’s forehead. _I’m sorry, Hux.  
_A soft whimper escaped Hux as the tip of the knife slit over his hipbone. Abalin fought back an upwelling of panic as Hux’s blood spilled onto the crisp snow. With the wound opened, Abalin could sense the full weight of the raw, festering darkness that Irizar had left in Hux. It was draining him, reducing his presence in the Force to almost nothing. No sooner had Abalin sensed it than he felt Luke counterbalancing it, preventing it from digging deeper into Hux.  
Abalin was startled when he heard Luke’s voice in his mind. _Now, Ben. He can’t hold on much longer.  
_The energy of the auroras above them responded to Abalin’s call without hesitation. It flowed through Abalin in a rush, pure and vitalizing. Hux arched slightly off the ground as the Force entered the wound, clearing away Irizar’s poison and restoring the part of the Force that was bound to Hux himself. Abalin struggled to hold back the intensity of Aul-Zhana’s power, but it seemed to have a mind of its own as it searched Hux’s essence.  
Gradually, the darkness began to recede. Abalin drew a sharp breath as he returned to himself, feeling the frigid air on his skin. He managed to open his eyes and gaze at the wound on Hux’s side: still bloody but without the noxious blackness surrounding it. The last traces of Irizar’s poison had disappeared. All that was left was the small incision. A blue glow spilled from Abalin’s hand and that, too, vanished.  
Finally, only a faint scar remained over Hux’s hipbone. Abalin studied Hux’s face. His eyes were closed, but a very slight color had already returned to his skin.   
Luke sat back and let out a long breath, then glanced at Abalin. “Well done.”  
Abalin slid an arm under Hux’s knees and the other under his shoulders, lifting him gently and heading back towards the _Falcon_. Hux was barely conscious, but his fingers twisted into Abalin’s shirt. Abalin felt a slight pulling at the corner of his mind and let Hux settle into the warmth of Abalin’s thoughts.  
Once they were back to the crew quarters, Hux was asleep before Abalin finished drawing the covers around him. Abalin stayed with him, listening to the calm of Hux’s mind and slowly letting himself believe that Hux was truly safe.   
  
  
  


***  
  
  
  


Abalin went back outside and found Luke with his face upturned to the auroras. When Abalin stepped up beside him, Luke said, “Is he all right?”   
Abalin gave a small smile. “Yes.”   
Luke nodded. After a pause, he said, “The holocron that you gave me. Since we’ve been here, I’ve been able to search it much more easily. I think I finally found what Snoke was looking for.”   
Abalin turned to face him squarely. “What is it?”  
“According to this, there’s a way to use a vein of kyber crystals to keep oneself alive, far beyond a natural life span. Only the most powerful Sith even attempted it. Over time, the crystals tied to the Force user become drained of their energy. The holocron explains how to connect to new kyber veins.”  
“Snoke wanted to learn how to keep himself alive after he bleeds the first kyber vein dry.”  
Luke nodded. “The only way to kill someone using this technique is to destroy the entire kyber vein they’re connected to.”  
“So that’s how we kill Snoke,” Abalin said. “We destroy the kyber vein.”  
“Except,” Luke said wryly, “we don’t have a way to find it.”  
Abalin fell silent, turning over this new information in his mind. When Luke spoke again, interrupting Abalin from his thoughts, his voice was quieter. “Ben.”  
Abalin looked to him.  
“I thought that I should apologize,” Luke said, his eyes flickering away. “For everything I did to you. And for everything...I didn’t do.”  
Abalin swallowed, unable to find his voice.  
“I really am sorry. I know what that must sound like coming from me, but…” He trailed off.   
When Abalin could finally speak, he said, “Thank you for helping me save Hux.”  
Luke looked at him, his expression softer. “Of course. Least I could do.”


	51. Chapter 51

With slow, trudging steps, Rey returned to the _Falcon_. She paused as she saw Abalin descending from the ship’s walkway, then broke into a run.   
“Abalin!” she called. She drew up in front of him, studying his face. “It’s back. Your connection to the Force.”  
“Yes.”  
Her face broke into a smile and she threw her arms around his neck. “And Hux?”  
“Fully healed. He’s resting in the _Falcon_ now.”  
She squeezed her arms more tightly around him. When she finally leaned back, she kept her hands on Abalin’s shoulders and let out a tired sigh. “It’s good to see you.”  
Abalin looked at her more closely, frowning. “What is it?”  
Rey hesitated. “Do you think we could walk somewhere?”  
She led him to a tumble of rocks along the frozen shore. Rey perched on a flat-topped boulder and Abalin leaned on another one next to her. The sky had lightened and the auroras were paler now, but the underwater creatures continued to shimmer in shades of purple and red, their glow muted and smeared by the imperfections in the ice.   
“What happened?” Abalin asked.  
Rey took a breath. “Luke said that if I did it correctly, if I formed a connection with the crystal, it would guide me to finish building the saber. But…” She shook her head. “It’s like it doesn’t want anything to do with me. When I did finally connect to it…” She trailed off and glanced at him. “It doesn’t make any sense.”  
“Tell me.”  
Rey swallowed and said, “I kept seeing these...visions.” She took the crystal out of her pocket as she spoke and fidgeted with it. “It reminded me of feeling Snoke in your mind, when I was healing the wound he left in you. It was like being trapped there.”   
He didn’t answer right away. Finally, he murmured, “It must have something to do with the connection to Snoke that Hux’s father was talking about.”  
Rey gave a shrug and held out the crystal towards him.   
He took it, turning it over in his hand. “Usually, when a Jedi student makes their lightsaber, they’ve chosen their crystal,” he said slowly. “It’s called to them, so they already have a bond with it when they begin. You didn’t get that option, so this was always going to be difficult.” He paused, and Rey felt a slight shift as he focused more deeply on the crystal. “But there’s something else here.”   
He started to hand it back to her, but she didn’t take it. “Do you think you could help me?”  
Abalin ran his thumb over the face of the crystal. At his hesitation, Rey felt a brief panic. Luke had already told her that it would be next to impossible for her to find another kyber crystal, and she dreaded the thought of leaving Aul-Zhana having lost her only chance. But Abalin only glanced up at her and said, “Of course.”  
  
  
  


***  
  
  
  


They found a sheltered cave in the nearby hills, its rounded walls slicked with a veneer of gleaming blue ice. Rey sat across from Abalin, both of them cross-legged on the ground. The crystal was between them, glittering in the snow. In a satchel at her side, she had the components from her old quarterstaff, disassembled so that it could come back together as a lightsaber hilt.   
“If this really is connected to Snoke…” She trailed off and looked at him with concern. “Are you sure you’ll be all right?”  
“I’ll be careful.”  
She regarded him for a few moments. “I appreciate this, Abalin.”  
“You’ll be doing the hard part.” He straightened slightly and seemed to compose himself. “Are you ready?”  
She nodded, drew a deep breath, and closed her eyes.  
Aul-Zhana made it almost unsettlingly easy to sink into the depths of the Force. She quickly found the crystal, with its turbulent energy that was so resistant to her, and then Abalin, a welcome counterpoint, his presence strong but steady and calm.   
His voice echoed around her. _Show me_.  
Hesitantly, she reached out to the crystal as she had before. It seemed to deliberately withdraw from her, and as she continued trying to grasp it, it sent out a sharp burst of Force energy. She flinched away, but before it could reach her, Abalin intercepted it.  
She felt Abalin’s puzzlement as he watched what she had already seen: hundreds of kyber crystals, an entire cavern full of them, all veined with black as if they were rotting from the inside. She felt a flicker of surprise from him. Then, gradually, she heard his realization taking shape: _These visions must have been what Hux’s father couldn’t get away from.  
_He navigated carefully through the crystal’s defenses, clearing a way for her to move past the unnerving images that had held her back before. Abalin’s presence suddenly seemed far away, and soon, she lost track of him altogether. She swallowed a surge of fear as she found herself alone, immersed in the living core of the crystal.   
She knew her hands were moving across the metal parts in front of her, although she couldn’t have said exactly what she was doing. She pictured what she wanted from her saber, and the crystal seemed to do the rest, working through her to build what she saw in her mind.   
When she came back to herself, hours had passed. Through the mouth of the cave, the gray sky was edging towards black, the auroras more visible with every moment. In her hands was a fully constructed saber hilt.   
With its scavenged materials and modified components, it wasn’t as elegant and precise as Luke’s, nor as stark as Abalin’s had been. It felt unmistakably hers.  
Abalin was waiting for her outside the cave. As she approached him, she held out the hilt. “A saber staff. Like you said.”  
The broadest smile she’d seen from him split his face. He beckoned her towards the _Falcon_. “Let’s go show Luke.”  
They met Luke at the end of the ship’s causeway. He caught sight of the saber and offered a smile. “Congratulations, Rey. That’s not an easy task.” He arched a brow at her. “Well, come on. Let’s see.”   
She took a deep breath, then ignited the saber. A golden blade burst out of either end of the hilt.  
  
  
  


***  
  
  
  


They prepared the _Falcon_ to leave. Luke and Hux were already inside while Rey lingered at the bottom of the causeway, her face tilted to watch the brilliant auroras. Abalin walked up beside her.   
Her voice was sad when she spoke. “I’m going to miss this world.”  
Abalin followed her gaze, watching the purple and pink ribbons shift through the sky. “Me too.”  
“We’ll come back, someday,” Rey said. “Right?”  
Abalin smiled. “We will.”   
After a few moments, Rey glanced at him and asked, “Luke told you what he found in the holocron?”  
“About the kyber vein keeping Snoke alive. Yes.”  
Rey was quiet, turning the hilt of her lightsaber in her hand. “You think that’s what the crystal was showing us.”  
He looked at her in surprise. “Yes. Do you think so too?”   
Rey nodded. “And the longer I spend with it, the more I feel that it’s...pulling me somewhere,” she said. “The cavern in the vision must be the place that Snoke is using to draw his power. That has to be where this crystal came from.” When Abalin didn’t answer, she turned to face him squarely, excitement rising in her voice. “Abalin, this will lead us to him.”  
Abalin stared at the hilt in silence before his eyes flickered up to hers. Rey remembered their first conversation on the _Perpetua,_ when he’d looked so exhausted, so uncertain about how they would ever have a chance against Snoke. She reached out and took his hand, squeezing it fiercely. “We can do this, Abalin. End the First Order. Return balance to the Force.”   
An incredulous smile broke out on Abalin’s face. “You’re right,” he said. “We can.”


	52. Chapter 52

Leia stood in the hangar as the _Falcon_ touched down. The causeway lowered, and Luke and Rey were the first to emerge. Rey ran to join Finn and Poe, excitedly holding out something metallic. A new lightsaber hilt, Leia realized.   
As Luke approached Leia, she asked, “How did it go?”  
“Pretty well, all things considered,” Luke said.   
Leia hesitated. “Ben? And Hux?”  
He gave her a smile and then glanced back at the _Falcon_. Finally, Abalin and Hux appeared at the top of the causeway.  
Leia went to meet them as they descended. Abalin bent to embrace her, and she cupped his face in her hands. She easily sensed the thrum of the Force she had always known in him. “That’s more like it,” she said.  
He nodded, smiling. Behind him, Hux carefully stepped off of the ramp to the hangar floor. Leia turned to him.   
“General Hux,” Leia greeted crisply.   
Hux lifted a brow. “General Organa,” he returned with a note of caution.  
Before he could protest, Leia pulled him into a hug. “Glad to see you’re okay.”  
Hux was speechless. Leia saw Abalin trying not to laugh at the stunned expression on Hux’s face as she released him and stepped back. “Now that you’re both back from your little vacation, we have a lot of work to do.”  
  
  
  


***  
  
  
  


In the command room, Leia brought up a holo of the Galactic Core. “In the time you’ve been gone, the First Order has begun their invasion of the Core Worlds,” she said grimly. “The primary fleet has already attacked Tangenine, and a secondary fleet is moving towards Chandrila. It looks like Tinnel IV is next, but we aren’t certain.”  
“Ganthel,” Hux said.  
Leia turned to him. “What?”  
“Ganthel is the next target for the primary fleet.”  
She frowned. “And you know that because…”  
“Because I designed this path to invade the Core.” Hux said. “It was one of the last things I did with the council. I expected them to throw away my plans in favor of a new strategy. But they don’t seem to have bothered.”   
“So you know where they’ll go next?” Poe asked.  
“Well, assuming they don’t deviate from my suggested route, the primary fleet led by the _Finalizer_ will attack here—” Hux touched his finger to the holo of the galactic map, changing the color of a planet from green to red. “Here,” another planet, and then several more until he reached the center of the map.   
“Each division will spiral towards Coruscant,” he explained. “And with minimal opposition from the target worlds, all capital ships are expected to arrive at Coruscant together.”  
Leia let out a long breath and shook her head. “They won’t stand a chance.”  
“What happens then?” asked Finn.  
“If the New Republic surrenders, Coruscant will be taken peacefully. Should they resist...” Hux’s eyes flashed. “I imagine Sindian will be far less diplomatic than I might have been.”  
“We’ll have to intervene before they get that far,” Leia said.   
“You won’t want to do that,” Hux murmured. “My insight is only valuable if the First Order continues to follow my plan. If they realize that the Resistance is able to anticipate every move, they may adopt a different approach.”  
“What’s so bad about that?” Poe asked.  
“My strategy called for only as much military aggression as proved necessary,” Hux said thinly, “and that was not the council’s first preference.”  
“So what, then? We’re just supposed to let those worlds fall?”  
Hux didn’t answer, and Leia shook her head. “We can’t stand back and let this happen. Every minute we don’t do something, people will be killed.”  
“The Resistance is unprepared to face the advancing fleet,” Hux said. “Destroyers and fighters that you have not yet encountered will lead, and I guarantee your ships alone cannot win against them.”  
“Then how the hell are we supposed to stop them?” asked Poe. “We can’t cut them off, we can’t push them back, so what can we do?”  
“Hux is right. We can’t go up against the First Order fleet,” said Finn. “But it’s not just the fleet we have to worry about. Right now, the Order controls almost all of the Inner and Outer Rim. How are we supposed to drive them out of the worlds they’ve already taken?”  
Leia was quiet, thinking. “It won’t be easy,” she said finally, and glanced at Hux. “I’m going to need your help on this one, Brendol.”  
He studied her warily. “What do you have in mind?”  
Leia smiled, a sparkle in her eye. “Rebellion.”


	53. Chapter 53

Rey’s lightsaber hilt was on the table in front of her, twisted apart into three segments. The crystal, now a pale gold, lay amid the component pieces. Luke and Abalin sat on either side of her.  
“We know that Snoke is using a kyber vein to keep himself alive. And with this—” Rey picked up the crystal. “—we’ll be able to find him. So...what’s next? How soon can we go look for him?”  
“I don’t know if we’re ready to face Snoke yet,” Abalin said quietly, glancing between her and Luke.   
“You told me that the First Order exists to keep Snoke safe,” Rey countered. “If we wait much longer, they’ll have control of the whole galaxy. We’ll never be able to reach Snoke if the Order wins.”  
“So how much time does that leave us?” Luke said.  
“It depends how fast the Order moves,” Abalin replied. “But there’s another problem. You said that to kill Snoke, we need to destroy the entire kyber vein. How are we going to do that with only three of us?”  
“Well,” Luke said thoughtfully, after a brief pause, “lightning would probably do it.”  
Rey and Abalin both turned to look at Luke in surprise. “I’m not sure I would be able to summon it again,” Abalin said, uneasy.  
Luke shrugged. “You did it once. That means you can do it again.”  
Abalin was quiet for a few moments. He glanced down at his hands, where the branching red lines from Mirabeau had receded to a few scarcely visible white scars. “I don’t know…”  
“Of course you can, Abalin,” Rey said, with a smile. “I’m sure of it.”  
His eyes flickered between them until Luke echoed Rey’s smile. Abalin hesitated, then gave a short nod. “I’ll try.”  
  
  
  


***  
  
  
  


It took him weeks to make any progress. The first few attempts sent him back to the infirmary, where Olivine harangued him for his stubbornness while she layered bacta over the burns on his arms.  
Luke sat with him a few times, helping give direction to his meditation. Abalin had asked him for advice at first, but after that Luke started to offer suggestions whenever he came up with something that might help.  
Abalin gradually started to gain better control. He found that he needed less of the fear and grief that had fueled him on Mirabeau. Instead, he remembered Aul-Zhana: the rush of the planet’s power moving through him, the raw energy of the Force coursing in his veins.  
Finally, Rey—against Abalin’s meek protests—found Hux on the base, took him by the elbow, and half-led, half-dragged him to the clearing along the river where Abalin had been practicing.  
Abalin greeted him with a small, crooked smile, which Hux received with one coolly raised eyebrow.   
“You didn’t have to bring him,” Abalin started to say, but Rey cut him off with a light cuff on the shoulder. She jerked her head towards the open space in front of them.  
Abalin faced the empty field, squaring his shoulders. He took a steadying breath, clearing his mind of all but his connection to the Force. When he glanced over his shoulder, Hux’s gaze was fixed on him with a look of cautious disbelief.  
Abalin turned back and held up his hands, one staggered slightly in front of the other, and closed his eyes.  
The lightning started as small sparks racing over his shoulders and arms, converging into a crackling web around his wrists. A thick cord of electricity shot forward from his palms, twisting around itself as it streaked across the clearing. The lightning slammed into a tree on the other side of the field and it exploded with an ear-splitting boom, launching burning shards of bark to the ground. All that was left behind was a skeletal trunk and a ring of black ash.  
Abalin let his hands drop. He turned towards Hux.  
“You learned to summon it.” Hux pulled his eyes back to Abalin’s face. “That’s…” He shook his head and walked forward to take Abalin’s hand. “That’s about what I would expect from you,” Hux finished, the corners of his mouth twitching.  
Abalin breathed a laugh, a pink flush rising in his cheeks as he drew Hux against him. He rested his forehead against Hux’s, a soft smile on his face.


	54. Chapter 54

When Abalin wasn’t learning to master the lightning, he was practicing saber fighting with Rey. She quickly readjusted to using a staff—far more quickly, in fact, than Abalin adjusted to the blue saber that had been Luke’s, and Anakin’s before him. As natural as Rey was with the weapon she’d built on Aul-Zhana, Abalin’s inherited saber remained stubbornly unfamiliar and awkward in his hand. He hadn’t realized how reliant he’d become on his connection to his own kyber crystal until he didn’t have it anymore.   
Within a few weeks of their return to Akroma, he’d pronounced Rey more than ready to meet Ghodous and Vaelys. With Irizar dead, that left only Mihalis.  
“He’ll be guarding Snoke,” Abalin said, lifting his saber blade off of Rey’s after she parried him.   
“At the kyber cavern?”  
“Yes.”  
“Have you ever met him?”  
“Just once. When I first joined the Ren.” Abalin tried to remember a block that he’d seen Vaelys use, which he promptly botched. He fell back a few paces with a mild sound of exasperation. “I think Snoke made sure to introduce all of the Ren to Mihalis at least once.”  
“Why?”  
“To scare us.”  
“Is Mihalis that scary?” Rey relented from a series of swift attacks and paused to catch her breath. Abalin stepped back, habitually spinning his saber between his hands, finding the weight of this blade far less satisfying than his old one.  
“More…to scare us with the threat of doing to us what was done to him.”  
She looked back at Abalin and deactivated her saber staff, the blades retracting into the hilt. “You mean controlling his mind,” she said.  
“Yes.” He watched her drop into a cross-legged position on the grass, then mirrored her slowly as his expression sobered. “I think all of us were afraid of becoming what Mihalis is,” he went on. “No thoughts of your own. No sense of who you are. At least, I was afraid of it.” He paused, then murmured, “I still am.”  
Rey frowned. “You don’t think that Snoke could still do that to you.”   
Abalin looked away uncertainly. “When we get to the kyber cavern, Snoke will be at his most powerful.” He fell silent for a few moments. “I don’t know what’s going to happen to me there.”   
“He doesn’t have a hold on you anymore, Abalin. Not like before.” Rey offered an encouraging smile. “You’re so much stronger now.”  
He struggled to match her confidence. “I hope you’re right,” he said.


	55. Chapter 55

The _Finalizer_ dropped into the Tesarion System, nose to nose with the _Vanguard_. Divo’s flagship was flanked by smaller but still formidable vessels, each of them marked with the red-and-white emblem of the New Republic.  
Sindian stood on the bridge, her eyes flitting across the array of ships before her. They represented most of what was left of the New Republic fleet, gathered here in an attempt to defend the Kasatkan Hyperlane—the path to Coruscant. The _Finalizer_ was surrounded on either side by enough destroyers to easily overpower Divo’s ships.  
She could not fail today. The Supreme Leader had made that extremely clear. A cold pang of fear shot through her, the memories of Snoke’s anger still at the forefront of her mind. His punishment after the events on Mirabeau had left her unsteady, as if her legs were now permanently too weak to support her.  
Hux’s words echoed through her mind: _“You’ll learn to tread carefully with the Supreme Leader. Unless you’ve learned already.”  
_ “Grand Vizier?” Lieutenant Umano appeared beside her. “The _Vanguard_ is hailing us.”  
“What are you waiting for? Open the channel,” Sindian snapped.  
Umano’s mouth thinned. “Yes, ma’am.”  
The bridge holo flashed blue, and an image materialized in a flicker of static: a full-sized version of Admiral Divo. “Sindian,” Divo growled. “You’ve got a lot of nerve showing your face here.”  
“Let’s make this quick, Admiral,” Sindian said, hoping the strain in her voice was not audible. “Your fleet is the last thing that stands between the First Order and total galactic control. Unfortunately for you, I am not interested in negotiating your surrender. Any last words?”  
Divo stared at her in silence, then spat, “I’d call you a traitor but you’ve never been loyal to anything long enough to betray it.”  
Sindian laughed softly. “I owe my success to you, really. Without even knowing it, you helped me drive apart the Senate until I could come back to pick up the pieces. The galaxy will remember you as a hero to the First Order, Admiral Divo.”  
Divo’s jaw was clenched. “Enough of this,” he snarled.  
The _Vanguard’s_ forward cannon fired. A bright white ring of energy rapidly pulsed outward until it passed through the _Finalizer_ and the destroyers alongside it.   
A smile curled Sindian’s lips. “You should have known better than to use that against me. Before those designs were confiscated from the Resistance, I made a point of having a duplicate made for my own personal files. As it turns out, an upgraded multispectral particle shield is all that’s needed to become immune to the ray’s effects. Without your weapon, you’re just a handful of insignificant ships in firing range of our destroyers.”   
A flicker of fear crossed Divo’s face.   
“I commend you for your initial victories against the First Order,” Sindian continued. “But against me, you never had much of a chance. Goodbye, Admiral.”  
Divo cursed viciously, and then the holo blinked out.  
All destroyers launched their full flotilla of TIE fighters. They swarmed the New Republic fleet, unleashing blinding flashes of laser fire. The sound of the _Finalizer’s_ cannons rattled the bridge. Sindian looked on as the _Vanguard’s_ shields began to fail under the assault. One after another, massive explosions tore through the _Vanguard,_ rending apart the hull.   
Sindian indulged in a triumphant smile as the last of the New Republic ships disappeared in flame. Then she turned crisply and left the bridge for the Holochamber, where Snoke was waiting for her report.


	56. Chapter 56

“General, urgent transmission from the Tesarion System.”  
Hux broke off mid-sentence from his conversation with Leia, seated across from him in the command room. They both turned towards Lieutenant Connix.  
“Bring it up on the main holo,” Leia said, and a wavering projection appeared above the table. “That’s the _Vanguard,”_ Leia said as the image resolved. She caught Hux’s eye and they exchanged a significant glance as the holo started to play.  
Abalin stepped up beside Hux’s chair, watching as the _Finalizer_ edged into view. Moments later, a deluge of TIEs burst towards the _Vanguard,_ followed by cannon fire that sent up blue-toned bursts of flame from the New Republic ship. A gasp rose from the room as the _Vanguard_ was swallowed in a sudden, fiery eruption, leaving only wreckage behind.  
Leia was the first to speak, her voice stunned. “The _Vanguard_ was the Core’s last defense.”  
“The Order has regrouped at the Dinraal Nebula, just a few parsecs from Coruscant. A few New Republic ships are on their way to intercept, but it’s only a small reserve fleet,” Connix said tensely. “Without the _Vanguard_ , they won’t be able to hold the Order off for very long.”  
“We’re out of time,” Leia said grimly.  
They both turned towards Abalin, and Hux sensed a flicker of fear in him as he understood. “Rey, Luke, and I have to find Snoke now,” Abalin said.  
When Hux didn’t answer him, Abalin glanced to Leia. She gave a firm nod. “You’re ready,” she said, and Abalin’s expression steeled to match Leia’s.   
Her gaze swept around the room. “Get the _Perpetua_ prepared for launch. We’re going to meet the Order at Dinraal.”  
  
  
  


***  
  
  
  


On the airfield, Hux looked on from a distance as Rey, Finn, and Poe exchanged their goodbyes. Leia was with them, holding Rey’s hands in her own.   
Hux stood aside as Leia approached Abalin and wrapped him in a fierce hug. “You can do this,” she told him. “We’ll be back together before you know it. Be brave, Ben.”  
“I will,” Abalin answered softly.  
Hux had looked away in an attempt to offer them some privacy, and inadvertently caught Luke’s eye as he walked towards them.   
“General Hux,” Luke said shortly. He hesitated, as if he wanted to say something more, but opted instead for a brief, curt nod.  
Hux nodded back, slowly. Luke stepped past him and went to Leia just as she let go of Abalin.   
“Off to fight in some big war again?” Luke asked with a crooked smile.   
“Something like that,” Leia said. “Keep an eye on Rey and Ben. They’re troublemakers.”   
“No more than we were,” Luke chuckled, pulling her into a hug. “Good luck, Leia.”  
“See you soon, Luke.”   
They parted and Luke headed towards the _Falcon,_ Rey falling into step beside him. Leia watched them go and then turned back to Hux. “We’ll be launching soon,” she said. Her eyes flickered between him and Abalin. “I’ll meet you in the command room, Brendol.”  
Hux nodded, and with one last lingering glance towards Abalin, Leia walked away. When she was gone, Abalin stepped closer to Hux and took his hand. He attempted to speak several times before he managed, “I’m afraid that if Snoke gets into my mind, he might be able to reach you. I’m not sure I could stop him.”  
Hux stared at Abalin, understanding but for a moment not wanting to. “You think we should close off the channel.”  
Abalin’s hand tightened desperately around Hux’s. He murmured, “I don’t know how else to keep you safe.”  
Hux considered this, briefly casting for another solution. Something that would make Abalin’s suggestion impractical, unnecessary.  
When he could find none, he said briskly, “You’re right. We’ll be too far apart for it to be of use, anyway.”  
Abalin had stopped listening as soon as he heard Hux agree. His panic rose like an incoming tide between them. _I don’t know if I can do this without you.  
_ Hux placed one hand on the back of Abalin’s neck and brought Abalin’s face closer to his own until their foreheads were pressed together. He felt Abalin hovering at the edges of his mind and pulled him into the steady current of his thoughts.   
Abalin fought briefly to master the fear that spilled out into the open: _What if it stays quiet?  
_ Hux shook his head, refusing to entertain the possibility of a lifetime of one-sided silence. _It won’t. You will come back from this. And so will I.  
_ He kissed Abalin softly. The frenetic pulse of Abalin’s thoughts calmed. Quietly, Hux said, _I’ll still be with you even when you can’t hear me.  
_ Abalin drew a breath and nodded. He withdrew his presence from Hux, finding balance in his own mind. He touched his fingertips to Hux’s temple and closed his eyes.  
Hux felt the bond break, swift and clean. Abalin straightened and said, “Be safe.” He turned to leave.   
He was almost at the _Falcon_ when Hux found his voice again. “Abalin,” he called.  
He paused and looked back to Hux, his jaw set.  
Hux faltered for a moment, not sure what he wanted to say. He locked eyes with Abalin and said, “May the Force be with you.”  
Abalin looked taken aback, then gave a resolute smile before letting it fall away. The next moment, Abalin had climbed the causeway and disappeared inside the _Falcon_. Hux watched the ship lift from the ground, hover, and then disappear into the expanse of sky above.


	57. Chapter 57

_“This is General Leia Organa of the Resistance. To anyone hearing my voice, this is a call to arms. The last New Republic flagship has been destroyed by the First Order. If Coruscant falls, this war is lost. For months, we’ve planned and bided our time, waiting for the right moment to rise against the Order. That moment is now. We are the last hope for the freedom of the galaxy.  
_ _“My fleet will lead an attack against the Order’s capital ships as they advance through the Core. But that alone is not enough to defeat them.  
_ _“I call on those who have suffered by the First Order’s hand. I call on those who have lost their homeworlds. I call on those that the New Republic left behind.  
_ _“To anyone with a ship, a gun, and a reason to fight, I ask you to come together and join us. With our strength combined, there is nothing that we cannot overcome. The spirit of rebellion will never die. May the Force be with us all.”  
  
  
  
_ “Confirmed from all receiving stations,” Connix said, glancing up at Finn and Hux from the communications console.   
“Your transmission is on its way, General Organa,” Finn said as Leia appeared at the entrance to the command room and crossed over to them in a few strides. “That was a hell of a speech.”  
She smiled. “Thank you, Finn.”  
An alert sounded from the comms console, and Finn and Connix turned to address it. Leia caught Hux’s eye and beckoned him to follow her.  
“Well?” she said as they crossed to a quieter corner of the command room.  
“We were able to override the fractional codices on the First Order communication centers,” Hux said. “The message is being relayed on all frequencies on every First Order-controlled planet and outpost between the Core and the Outer Rim.”  
“Glad to hear it,” Leia replied with a wry smile, “but I actually meant to ask your opinion about the message.”  
Hux paused. “My opinion?”  
“Come on, Brendol. I know you have something to say. You always do.”  
Hux was quiet for several moments. Then he said, “If you must know, I’ve just finally understood why the Empire was so afraid of you.”  
Leia smirked. “Good answer.”  
Hux allowed a small smile, then glanced around at the command room. It was buzzing with excitement over Leia’s message, although they wouldn’t know until they reached Dinraal whether it had worked. “What do we do next?”  
Leia gave a shrug. “We’ve done what we can.”  
Hux nodded, uneasy. “I’ll monitor the transmissions in case there’s any update—”  
“You’re not going to sit and stare at the comms console all night, Brendol,” Leia said chidingly. “There’s nothing for us to do except wait. For now…” She arched a brow at him. “Would you care to have a drink with me?”  
  
  
  


***  
  
  
  


Leia led him to her study, a room in a side wing of the base that he’d never been in before. Hux watched her pull a carafe and two tumblers from a metal cabinet, then set them down on the desk with her back to him.   
“This is always the worst part, isn’t it?” She turned towards him, holding out a glass filled with teal liquid. “The waiting before a planned engagement.”  
He accepted it with a murmur of thanks and sank into a chair. Something about the wine’s distinctive color struck him as vaguely familiar. He tried to place its floral scent. His eyes cut suddenly to the teardrop-shaped bottle and then to Leia, who was watching him closely.  
“This is Alderaanian,” he realized. He paused, trying to remember. “Toniray.”  
“Very impressive,” she said, taking the seat opposite him.  
Carefully, he set the glass down on the table in front of him. “I can’t imagine how rare these bottles must be, General Organa. I’m not sure I can accept.”  
“I thought you might say that. That’s why I didn’t tell you what it was in advance.” Leia raised her own glass. “To safe returns,” she said.  
Hux picked up his tumbler, still hesitant, and clinked it against hers. He took a small sip as she did the same. As the wine touched her lips, some of the worry seemed to fade from her face. Her eyes closed, and she allowed a small, content smile that was only a little sad. He hastily averted his gaze when she opened her eyes, feeling like he’d been prying.  
“It’s kept well,” Leia said.  
Hux gave a small nod, disconcerted that he could not find anything worth saying. He took another sip of the Toniray, letting the earthy sweetness linger on his tongue, a remnant of a vanished world.  
A brief silence fell between them. She turned the glass in her hands, watching the light make patterns on the surface of the dark turquoise liquid. Hux wondered if Leia had wanted company, or if she had sensed Hux’s lingering unease since the _Falcon_ left.  
“He’ll be all right,” Hux said abruptly, and let his eyes slide towards Leia. “Won’t he?”  
Leia didn’t answer for a long time, so long he regretted saying anything. He tried to look blankly back at her, as if the answer made little difference to him. But he was still exhausted after hiding his fear from Abalin. He had no energy to hide it from Leia, even though he was certain she was looking. Hux knew the feeling too well to mistake it.  
Slowly, she said, “What Ben has been able to do, just in the time since you two came here...I’ve never seen anything like it. Together with Luke and Rey, they stand the best chance anyone’s ever had against Snoke. And,” Leia added, when Hux still looked unsettled, “if there is a way back to you, he will find it. I have no doubt.”  
Hux nodded mutely. Neither of them spoke for a long while until he asked, “Do you really think your message will be answered?”  
“I’m not sure.”  
Hux glanced at her, surprised. She gave a small shrug. “My message won’t change anyone’s mind if they didn’t already have a reason to take a stand against the Order. All it can do is convince them that if they stand with us, they have a fighting chance.”


	58. Chapter 58

Rey guided them well beyond the reaches of the inhabited regions, through the Outer Rim and then past it into Wild Space. She made minute adjustments to their path as they drew closer, meditating with the crystal often to ensure that they never strayed off course.  
More than once, Abalin caught her with her lightsaber hilt open in front of her—not meditating, just staring out into nothingness. He seemed to make it a point to gently wake her from these reveries. She appreciated that, since it was easy to slip away into a sort of trance while listening to the crystal.  
No one was keeping track of the distance they had traveled, and the days and nights started to fold into one another. It was hard for Rey to say how far away they were, but she knew they were getting closer.  
At last, Rey awoke to an unwavering certainty that they had arrived. They dropped out of hyperspace just above the atmosphere of a planet shrouded in a thick green haze. As she and Abalin guided the _Falcon_ towards the surface, Luke tried to find out the name of their destination. In the ship’s navigational system, the planet didn’t exist at all. According to an ancient atlas he’d brought with him from Ahch-To, it was called Naelum.  
The _Falcon_ touched down on the barren gravel. Veils of filmy mist hung in the air, unfurling between the trunks of massive, long-dead trees. Their leafless branches thinned the weak sunlight filtering down from the pale green sky.  
All three of them looked out through the cockpit window at the desolate terrain. From here, they could see the entrance to a cavern, a tunnel that sank beneath the ground. In front of it, dwarfed by the scale of the tunnel’s mouth, stood two figures.  
Vaelys and Ghodous did not move as Rey, Abalin, and Luke left the _Falcon_ behind and approached the cave. The Ren tensed as Luke stepped closer.  
“You know why we’re here,” said Luke. No breath of wind stirred the eerily still landscape. “Step aside and you’ll be spared.”  
“We would gladly die for our master,” Vaelys spat, crackling with malice, “as Kylo Ren should have.”  
Abalin gave her no reply, addressing Ghodous instead. “You know that Snoke is using you. He was using all of us. Now he’s throwing you to your death just to protect himself.”  
Rey glanced at Abalin. There was no anger in his expression, just a trace of something like pity. Ghodous’s stance didn’t change, but his eyes flickered briefly.  
“He’s done nothing to earn your loyalty,” Abalin pressed. “You don’t need to die like Irizar.”  
Ghodous’s gaze sharpened on him. “What do you think will happen to you when you walk into the source of Snoke’s power?” he said bitingly. “You will be defenseless against him. If you enter here, you will die.”  
Abalin’s voice was soft but certain. “I’ll do whatever it takes to kill Snoke.”  
“Let this end,” Luke broke in. “Make your choice.”  
In response, Ghodous ignited the shimmering cobalt blade of his saber and held it in front of him.  
Luke gave a shrug, igniting his own lightsaber as Abalin and Rey did the same. “All right, then.”  
He lunged towards Ghodous, and Abalin followed Luke’s lead. Rey made to go after them, but Vaelys cut off her path. Before Rey could react, Vaelys threw her hand out and froze Rey in place.   
Rey closed her eyes, bracing for the insidious vision Vaelys would place in her mind. When she opened them, Vaelys and the murky air of Naelum had vanished. Instead, Rey found herself in the arid deserts of Jakku. She blinked against the intense sun before a shadow fell over her. A towering wall of dust was rolling towards her—it was a wind storm, the kind that plagued Jakku’s summer months. She could do nothing to outrun the dust as it consumed her.  
Vaelys materialized before Rey, the iridescent blade of her saber casting ominous purple light through the swirling sand. “You should have never left these deserts,” Vaelys hissed, her voice eerily clear despite the howling winds.   
Rey kept her breathing even. She held on to the part of her that knew this was only an illusion even as the hot sand whipped around her, scouring her skin. Very subtly, she tested Vaelys’s hold on her. Vaelys was weaker than she had been on Mirabeau, frazzled and worn thin. Careless.  
“You can’t stop us from reaching Snoke,” Rey snarled. “And you’ll die trying to protect him.”  
Vaelys’s expression twisted and the winds coiled more furiously around them. Rey tensed as she stalked forward, lifting her saber so the blade hovered beside Rey’s throat. She leaned in, her other hand going to Rey’s cheek. There was an unhinged glint in her eye as she studied Rey’s face. “If I am to die, child of Light,” Vaelys purred, “then we shall die together.”   
Rey broke from Vaelys’s hold and ducked away as Vaelys swung the saber. Evading another lunge, Rey rolled across the ground, landed on her feet and ignited her staff. She brought her blade harshly against Vaelys’s, driving her back.   
The landscape within the vision trembled as Vaelys’s concentration faltered. She lunged at Rey again and Rey dodged, sweeping the end of her staff towards Vaelys’s feet. Vaelys stumbled and slashed her saber out in a high arc. Rey blocked and then spun the hilt of her staff, striking Vaelys’s saber aside. The tip of it sliced across Rey’s shoulder as it fell from Vaelys’s grasp. Before she felt the pain, she had reversed her staff and driven the opposite blade through Vaelys’s chest.  
Vaelys gasped, her eyes widening as they locked with Rey’s. The harsh sands of Jakku slowed, then wisped away into nothing until the green skies of Naelum were visible once more. Vaelys’s hand covered Rey’s on the hilt of her staff. Her face showed no hint of fear—only the slight curl of a smile on her lips.  
Rey felt Vaelys’s presence clutch convulsively at her mind, then fade away. She yanked the lightsaber free and let Vaelys’s body fall to the ground. She paused to catch her breath, then spun to find Abalin and Luke. 


	59. Chapter 59

When Abalin first joined the Ren, it had always been Irizar who trained him in lightsaber fighting. As Abalin’s blade met Ghodous’s, it quickly became apparent why: Ghodous was far weaker in saber combat than Irizar. Abalin started to wear him down with only a few short, precise lunges. At any break in Abalin’s attack, Luke followed up and drove Ghodous back further. Ghodous was more defensive with Luke, dodging or blocking but never bringing himself to return Luke’s strikes.  
The next time Abalin came towards him, Ghodous did not raise his own saber. Instead, he sidestepped and shot out his hand. The Light flared against Abalin’s mind, white-hot and blazing. When they last met, it might have been enough to disarm him. But now Abalin deflected the attack on his mind effortlessly, the Light as easy to meet and bend as it had ever been. He felt a fierce rush of triumph as he saw the look of fear on Ghodous’s face.  
There was a blur of gold as Rey’s saber suddenly split the air between them and sliced the inside of Ghodous’s arm. Ghodous staggered back, letting out a hiss of pain. All three advanced on him, but before any of them could reach him, Ghodous extinguished his saber and threw his opposite hand towards the ground. A plume of rocks and dust exploded skyward. Abalin stumbled blindly as he tried to catch Ghodous, but Rey grabbed his shoulder. It only took a few moments for the debris to clear, but by the time it did, Ghodous had slipped away into the heavy fog.  
“We can’t let him escape,” Abalin breathed harshly.   
“We’re not here for him,” Rey said.   
In a low voice, Luke added, “He’s nothing but a coward, Ben. Let him run.”  
Abalin gave a stiff nod, dropping his saber to his side. He caught sight of Vaelys’s body sprawled on the ground. His gaze lingered on her before he looked up at Luke.  
“Just remember,” Luke cautioned as their eyes met, “that was the easiest part.”  
The three of them turned to the cave’s dark maw, where the path vanished downward into the shadowed depths of the cavern. Rey stepped forward first, holding her lightsaber out before her to illuminate the way. Luke went beside her, glancing at her with an eyebrow raised.  
Abalin did not follow. He found himself suddenly paralyzed with fear. For so many years, Snoke had held so much power over him. Standing here now, it seemed foolish to have ever believed he could help defeat Snoke.   
“Abalin,” Rey said softly. “You’ll be okay.”   
Luke went back to him and put a hand to Abalin’s elbow. “Come on, kid,” he said, and pulled Abalin with him as they began their descent.


	60. Chapter 60

“So, let me get this straight,” Finn began. “We’re dropping right into the middle of a battle between the Order and the New Republic, and just...hoping that help shows up?”  
“That’s the plan,” said Leia. Along with Poe and Hux, they had gathered on the bridge of the _Perpetua,_ the windows streaked with blue as they traveled to the Dinraal Nebula. “Poe, Finn—get all squadrons briefed. You launch as soon as we drop out of hyperspeed.”  
“You got it, General,” Poe answered, heading towards the launch bay with BB-8 at his heels.  
Finn started to follow, but paused. Noticing his hesitation, Poe stopped too. “Finn?”   
To Leia, Finn said, “Let me stay on the bridge.”  
Leia turned to him in surprise. “What?”  
“We all know I’m not the greatest pilot. I can be a lot more useful here. You could use another set of eyes that knows the Order.”  
Leia studied him, and then said, “If you’re sure.”   
Finn gave a firm nod. He looked back to Poe and offered a slight smile. “Sorry, Poe.”  
Poe returned the smile more broadly. “For the record, I think you’re a fantastic pilot. But I guess you’re right. Someone needs to keep an eye on Hux. He might still turn on us.”  
“I’m considering it,” Hux said without moving his gaze from the main console.   
Finn took Poe’s hand, and seemed surprised when Poe pulled him into a kiss. When they broke apart, Poe said, “See you on the other side.”   
“Good luck, Poe.” Finn glanced around and then added in a quieter voice, “I love you.”   
Poe gave him a crooked grin. “I love you too.”  
BB-8 zipped past him and gently bumped Finn’s leg. Finn dropped to a crouch and gave BB-8 an encouraging pat. “Good luck to you too, BB-8. Keep him safe out there.”   
BB-8 bobbled, chirping an affirmative. With one last nod, Poe and BB-8 disappeared into the corridor.   
Sheepishly, Finn rejoined Hux and Leia. She smiled at him before turning to the rest of the bridge. “To battlestations,” she said.  
  
  
  


***  
  
  
  


The Dinraal Nebula was a pulsing, glimmering cloud of blood-red stardust. When the Resistance arrived, a dozen white and red heavy cruisers, the last reserves of the New Republic fleet, were being bombarded by First Order destroyers. The cruisers were led by a capital ship Leia recognized as the _Sovereign,_ its shields already flickering under heavy fire.   
“Shit,” Finn breathed, looking over the carnage. “This is all that’s left of the New Republic defense?”  
“We’re just in time,” Leia said. She squinted through the windows. “That’s the _Finalizer,_ the _Bellator..._ ”   
“The destroyer nearest the New Republic fleet is the _Maelstrom_. Beyond it is the _Nexilis,”_ Hux supplied. “Those four comprise the command division. The rest will follow their lead.”  
As he spoke, a mass of TIEs emerged from the bellies of the destroyers. “All squadrons launch,” Leia ordered over the comm lines. “Keep those TIEs away from the _Perpetua.”  
_ “And remember, pilots,” Lieutenant Kumae cautioned, “this type of nebula is known to generate gravimetric anomalies. We’ll warn you if we spot anything on our long-range scanners.”  
Explosions peppered the nebula as the X-wings met the TIEs. The Resistance was thoroughly outnumbered, and before long, the first wave of TIEs had broken through the X-wings’ defensive line.  
The frame of the ship rattled as the TIEs’ artillery fire struck the _Perpetua’s_ shields. “Aren’t there any guns on this thing?” Finn demanded.   
“Our turrets aren’t quick enough to track TIE fighters,” said Kumae.  
Finn looked appalled. “Maybe we should have thought of that before we charged into a battle with the First Order.”  
“Agreed,” Hux said.   
Connix shouted, “TIEs approaching—”   
Another volley of explosives hit the _Perpetua,_ rocking the floor beneath their feet. When they recovered, Leia said, “Just hold position. We’re going to have help.”   
Hux opened his mouth to retort but before he could, Connix announced, “We have…a lot incoming at hyperspeed.”  
A low thrum racked the bridge as ships of all shapes and sizes began to drop from hyperspace on either side of the _Perpetua_. Jumpships, freighters, barges, armored cruisers and frigates—hundreds of them, arriving from Resistance posts throughout the galaxy. Leia recognized a number of them, commanded by her contacts with whom she’d been coordinating in the months leading up to this. But far outnumbering them were ships she didn’t know, piloted by people who had chosen to support the Resistance only after her message had gone out.   
A fierce, triumphant smile broke out on her face. It had been a gamble, hijacking the First Order’s comm frequencies. But it had paid off. There were even more who wanted to fight than she’d hoped.   
“Whoa,” Finn said, staring across the expanse of ships. “They came through.”  
Poe’s laughter rang over the comms. “Now it’s a real fight!”  
Abruptly, an alarm tone sounded from Kumae’s console. “General,” she said. “I’m picking up a gravimetric distortion.” Her fingers darted across the panel as she tried to coax more detail from the ship’s scanners. “Pilots will want to steer clear of it.”   
“Dameron,” Leia said crisply, “we’re patching through coordinates to your navicomputers now. Avoid that area or you’ll damage your ship’s automated controls—”   
“Wait.” Hux’s eyes were rapt on the panel in front of Kumae. “Send the X-wings and smaller craft into the anomaly.”  
Leia shot him a dubious look. “So we can lose all our autotracing?”  
“No,” Finn said, stepping forward to stand next to Hux. “So the TIEs will lose theirs.” He watched a TIE arc across their field of view in pursuit of an X-wing. Growing more animated, he continued, “Our pilots are all used to flying manually. But TIEs rely on their tri-optical targeting systems. If they have to switch to manual controls, they won’t know what hit them.” He looked to Hux. “Right?”  
“Something like that,” Hux said dryly. He turned back to the window, intently studying the chaos of the battlefield. “Once the TIE fighter pilots realize how the gravimetric distortion is affecting their ships, they’ll try to escape. Have anything larger than a jumpship guard the perimeter of the anomaly to prevent the TIEs from leaving.”   
Leia nodded. “Got all that, Commander Dameron?”  
Hux glanced at her in surprise, and saw that she was holding out her comm device towards him. She smirked.   
“Black Leader reading, Generals,” Poe responded cheerily, then began relaying Hux’s instructions to his squadrons.  
In waves, the smaller ships started to dive into a dense patch of opaque dust that marked the anomaly. The TIEs took the bait, disappearing within the thick vermilion clouds. There was a beat of silence. Then, cutting through the haze, gunfire flashed and briefly illuminated the feuding starfighters.   
“We’re almost blind here, Poe,” Finn said. “How’s it going?”  
“Spectacular,” Poe answered, and BB-8 enthusiastically concurred in the background. “You were right. The TIEs are a mess.”  
“You guys are okay without your autotracing?”  
“Are you kidding? The autotracing on these things only works about half the time anyway.”  
Leia glanced from Finn to Hux. “You two make quite the team,” she observed.  
Hux’s scowl deepened and Finn looked insulted. She chuckled and turned back to the window.   
With the TIEs and the Resistance starfighters now shrouded in the anomaly, the field had cleared between the _Perpetua_ and the nearest destroyers. The _Bellator_ and the _Nexilis_ loomed ahead of them.  
“The _Maelstrom_ will continue firing on the New Republic,” Hux said. “But these destroyers will soon turn their attention to us.”  
“I think they already have,” Finn replied worriedly as the _Bellator’s_ turrets swiveled towards them. “No way the _Perpetua_ can stand up to those ships. We need backup here.”  
“Our fleet’s still not big enough to split between the Order’s flotillas and the destroyers,” Leia countered. “Until they clear out some of those TIEs, we’re on our own.”  
“I wouldn’t be so certain.”  
Everyone turned to Hux, and he nodded to the screen in front of Connix. She frowned and glanced back to her console. After a pause, she said, “General, multiple ships incoming at hyperspeed. Big ones.”  
“More destroyers?” Leia asked tersely.  
Connix looked to Hux, who lifted an eyebrow and then faced the window.   
The walls shuddered around them as the approaching ships dropped out of hyperspace. On the starboard side, a hulking dreadnought appeared, double the size of the _Perpetua_. Flanking it were smaller gunships bearing the same crimson armor.  
Finn was the first to stop gawking. “Is that the Guavian Death Gang?” he demanded.  
“Guavian flagship _Mydano_ reporting in. Apologies for the late arrival,” announced a voice over the bridge comms. “Is it really you on there, General Hux?”  
Hux’s mouth twitched into a smile. “Bala-Tik. Glad to be working with you again.”  
“Likewise, General.”   
Leia was staring at Hux. “How in the hell did you manage that?”  
“Civilian freighters are all well and good, but you were in dire need of warships. I called in a favor.”  
“A favor,” Leia repeated.  
“You and I are hardly the only ones with a grudge against Sindian.”  
“What does she have to do with—?”  
“Bala-Tik was instrumental in my plan to expose Sindian as a traitor to the New Republic. He was very appreciative to be rid of her meddling and more than willing to help ensure her defeat.”  
“Those ships are a _lot_ bigger than the last time we saw them,” Finn remarked as the dreadnought swept past the _Perpetua_. “How the hell did they get all of that?”  
“I assume with the 300,000 credits they were paid by the First Order,” Hux answered. He tilted his head towards the window, where more gunships marked with an array of different insignias and crests were emerging from hyperspace beside the _Mydano_. “It seems Sindian failed to endear herself to more than just the Guavians. They’ve brought allies.”  
Leia shook her head and straightened. _“Perpetua_ command to _Mydano,_ this is General Leia Organa. Our starfighters are keeping the TIEs busy, but we’ll need your help to take on the destroyers.”  
“Aye, General,” responded Bala-Tik.  
The _Mydano_ lurched ahead, its forward cannons jolting to life and unleashing a barrage of laser fire. The _Perpetua_ mirrored it, and with the rest of the newly arrived ships, they advanced on the line of star destroyers. 


	61. Chapter 61

With Luke in the lead, the three of them took their first steps and let the cave swallow them. Each footfall echoed against the ceiling far above.  
Nearly every part of the cavern walls was covered in kyber crystals. Some were tiny shards, glittering like ice. Others were as wide around as tree trunks, leaning at dangerous angles as they stuck out of the ground and projected from the walls. Except for the steady gleam of Rey’s saber, these crystals cast the only light.  
Shadowy tendrils unfurled within the stones, branching through their interiors. Deeper into the cave, the crystals became more infected, the black marrow filling up half their length or more. Abalin knew instinctively that they were rotting.   
“This world was once as powerful as Aul-Zhana,” Luke said. “But Snoke has poisoned it.”  
“He’s draining the life out of the kyber,” Rey murmured.   
Although he did his best not to linger on Ghodous’s warning, Abalin quickly realized how right he had been. Rey had healed the worst of the wounds Snoke had left in his mind; they were only scars now. But Abalin knew what remained made him more vulnerable to Snoke’s influence. With growing certainty, he sensed that it was only a matter of time until he couldn’t fight it.  
But long before Ghodous told him what lay ahead, Abalin had already made his decision. He would keep going as long as he could, whatever the cost.  
Little by little, Abalin became aware of a distant sound, the only thing they’d heard besides their own footsteps: the faint drip of unseen water, magnified by the oppressive silence. The tunnel grew narrower and steeper, until finally it opened into an expansive chamber. The floor was pockmarked by small pools of still, clear water, their surfaces occasionally disturbed by a trickle of drops from the ceiling.   
Abalin flung out his arm, stopping Rey and Luke in their tracks. Rey looked to him, apprehensive. “What is it?”  
Abalin nodded ahead. A figure stood in front of them, half-hidden in shadow, his head bowed. Slowly, he lifted his expressionless face towards them. He did not blink, barely seemed to breathe.   
Rey peered warily past Abalin. “Does he know we’re here?”  
Abalin was still for several moments, his eyes fixed on the last Ren. Then, cautiously, he stepped forward. “Mihalis,” he called. “Can you hear me?”  
Mihalis’s empty gaze fell on Abalin. He said nothing.  
“Let us pass,” Abalin went on. “We aren’t here to kill you.”  
“I see your capacity for mercy knows no bounds, Kylo Ren. Sparing the general. Trying to turn the other Ren against me.” Mihalis’s mouth moved as he spoke, but his was not the only voice they heard. Over his soft murmur was the cold, familiar rasp of Snoke.  
“Mihalis was like you,” the twofold voice continued. “Unfaithful and pitifully weak. He too tried to stop me. He discovered that this vein of kyber was the source of my power. For that, I destroyed him.” Mihalis’s attention slid to Rey. “The crystal of your saber comes from this cave. It belonged to Mihalis, before he used it to betray me.”   
_ One of his servants came to me with the crystal.  _ They had replayed the words of Hux’s father so many times that Abalin could recite them from memory. Since Hux had first unlocked the message, they had speculated endlessly about how his father could have come into possession of a clue to Snoke’s weakness. But no one guessed it was tied to the transgression that warranted Mihalis’s punishment. It seemed impossible; then, inevitable.   
Snoke must have sensed the momentary lapse in Abalin’s defenses. There was a stabbing pain at his temples as Snoke made a calculated bid to enter Abalin’s mind. Abalin narrowly managed to shut him out.  
“Your efforts up until now have been admirable.” Mihalis’s tone remained flat, but Snoke’s was a low, malevolent hiss. “But you’ll go no further.”  
Mihalis’s eyes trailed across the three of them before he moved with a disconcerting swiftness for someone who a moment ago had scarcely seemed alive. He drew two hilts, one from each hip, and ignited them. The blades were half the length of a typical saber and onyx-black, edged in silver.  
Mihalis darted first towards Abalin, slashing outward.  Abalin barely had time to ignite his own saber to block the blow, slicing horizontally to deflect Mihalis’s blades and twisting away when he reversed his grip and lunged again.  
Abalin saw Rey bring her saber down towards Mihalis. Without turning his head, Mihalis swung one arm back and caught Rey’s blade against his own. He pivoted on his heel and thrust the second blade towards her. Rey dodged out of his reach.  
Luke stepped in between Mihalis and Rey. Abalin made to help him but he had hardly moved before Mihalis threw out his arm, his blade leveled at Abalin. A violent burst of Force energy slammed into him, and he was thrown to the ground as his saber clattered away.  
His view of the chamber blurred and warped. He could make out the intermittent flash of lightsabers—green, then gold, then black—sparking through the gloom, reflected in the pools of water. He willed himself to get up but the malicious energy of the cave lay over him like a physical weight, pinning him in place. The sound of the fight grew fainter, more distant. Then Rey’s scream pierced through his stupor:  _ “Luke!”  
_ The air inside the cavern seemed to vanish. Abalin’s vision cleared as he watched Luke fall.   
Abalin found himself on his feet. Mihalis had quickly gained the advantage over Rey and driven her away from Luke. With their blades locked against each other, he shoved her back and she stumbled into a knee-deep pool, her lightsaber hissing as it hit water.  
Abalin crossed over to them, summoning his saber hilt back to his palm as he walked. He ignited it and then sank the blade between Mihalis’s shoulders.   
A sickening gurgle escaped Mihalis. His black sabers dropped from his hands, extinguishing as they sank into the icy pool. Rey ducked away as Abalin yanked the blade from Mihalis’s back, letting him fall forward. Blood streamed from the wound, turning the water crimson.   
Panting harshly, Abalin met Rey’s eyes. For a moment both of them were paralyzed before they whipped around to find where Luke had fallen.  
He was leaning against a boulder. Clusters of kyber crystals above him cast him in muted light. One arm was draped over his chest, and blood had already begun to soak through the thick cloth of his robes.   
Luke gave a weak smile as Abalin knelt beside him. “I’m sorry, Ben,” he said softly. “He was quick.”  
Abalin could hear how shallowly Luke was breathing. He lifted a trembling hand to the wound at Luke’s chest. He knew the lie in his voice was obvious as he said, “I can heal it.”  
“No, no. Save your strength,” Luke managed. His eyes slipped to Rey. “The Light will always be there to guide you, Rey. Never forget that.”  
“You can’t go,” Rey said tearfully.  
“I won’t be going very far.” Luke took Abalin’s hand in his own, pressing a cold weight into Abalin’s palm. “You can do this, Ben,” he said. “Make your father proud.”  
Abalin fought through the tightness in his throat and said, “I will. I promise you I will.”  
Luke nodded, and then he closed his eyes. Almost imperceptibly at first, he began to fade away. Rey gasped as Luke’s body became a soft glimmer of blue before he vanished. All that remained was the hilt of Luke’s lightsaber in Abalin’s hand.  
Abalin stared blankly at the place where Luke had been, unable to move. He was startled when he felt Rey’s hand on his arm. “Come on,” she murmured. “We have to keep going. Snoke isn’t dead yet.”  
She pulled him to his feet, waiting until he was steady before she released him. He set his shoulders, and together they continued into the heart of the cave.


	62. Chapter 62

With the Guavian ships ringed protectively in front of them, the _Perpetua_ advanced towards the First Order line. The nearest destroyers moved to intercept them, attempting to form a barrier around the _Finalizer_. Before they reached it _,_ the vessels of Bala-Tik’s confederates—Hux spotted the emblems of the Blackstar Raiders, Kanjiklub, and several others he couldn’t identify—charged forward, meeting the destroyers head-on and opening fire.  
“We should disable the destroyers as quickly as possible before they recall the TIE flotillas to defend the capital ships,” Hux advised. “Assuming these shields can’t withstand direct fire from turbolaser cannons—”  
“They definitely can’t,” Kumae supplied.  
“Naturally,” Hux said, his tone weary. “In that case, General Organa, what is your suggestion for a defensive strategy?”  
Hux paced as he spoke, facing the bridge window. When he didn’t get a response, he repeated, with a note of impatience, “General Organa—?”  
He turned and his voice died in his throat. Leia was staring back at him, past him, her eyes vacant.   
She swayed. Finn draped an arm around Leia’s shoulders, steadying her. “What’s wrong?” he said. “Are you hurt?”  
Her lips barely moved as she whispered, “Luke.”  
Finn glanced at Hux, but Hux found he could not bring himself to speak. Turning back to Leia, Finn asked, “What about Rey and Abalin? Are they okay?”  
Leia didn’t answer, seemingly unable to hear him. Two technicians hurried to support her and, after a hushed conference with Finn, they guided her off the bridge.   
A shrill alert issued from the console in front of Connix, breaking the tense stillness. Hux snapped towards the sound. “It’s New Republic command,” Connix said, pressing her headset into her ear. “A distress signal from their lead ship, the _Sovereign_. Their shield generators are damaged and they can’t hold out against the Order for much longer.”  
Finn stepped up beside Hux. Grimly, he said, “We can’t wait for General Organa. What do we do?”  
Hux held Finn’s gaze for a moment. As he looked past Finn, he found the eyes of everyone on the bridge watching him expectantly.  
He turned back to take stock of the battlefield, where the _Sovereign_ and its support ships were struggling under the First Order’s onslaught. If the First Order won that front, they would turn their full attention on the Resistance. Leia’s makeshift fleet would undoubtedly be overwhelmed.  
But what did it matter if Luke, Rey, and Abalin had not been able to kill Snoke, if their mission had failed? If they hadn’t survived?  
Hux pushed the thought from his mind. There was nothing he could do for them except to win the battle in front of him.  
He pivoted to face the bridge. “We finish this,” he said decisively. His eyes cut to Connix. “Hail the _Mydano.”_ As she connected the comm line, he continued, “Bala-Tik, do you read?”  
Over the distorted sound of gunfire from the _Mydano,_ Hux heard Bala-Tik say, “Affirmative, General Hux.”   
“We must get the four command destroyers separated from each other. Isolate the _Bellator_ and the _Nexilis_. Hold them off while the _Perpetua_ aids the New Republic.”  
“Understood,” Bala-Tik replied. The _Mydano_ surged ahead to meet the _Bellator,_ the bulky cruiser easily fending off heavy artillery attack from the destroyer.   
At Hux’s instruction, Connix opened a line to Black Leader. “Dameron, recall your squadrons from the anomaly. Your next target is the _Maelstrom,”_ he ordered.   
“We’ve still got a few TIEs left in here,” Poe warned.  
“Get them in range of the _Sovereign_ and you won’t have to worry about them for long.”  
“I sure hope you’re right.”  
The X-wing squadrons burst out of the flickering clouds, trails of red dust streaming off their wingtips. Behind them, silhouettes of the larger craft appeared through the haze and swiftly closed in on the _Maelstrom._ A small cluster of TIEs gave chase, following the X-wings into the fray. But they were quickly cleared out by the _Sovereign’s_ precision cannons.  
With Black Leader at the forefront, the X-wings weaved alongside the destroyer and took down turret after turret, allowing the rest of the civilian fleet to draw in close enough to pierce the armored hull. The _Maelstrom’s_ remaining weapons ceased firing as its structure began to collapse. The spine of the ship split apart, and then an immense explosion swelled upward from the newly opened fissure.  
A cheer rose through the comms as the X-wings dodged fragments hurtling from the remnants of the star destroyer. Finn gave an especially passionate whoop and grabbed Hux’s shoulder, shaking him excitedly.   
Hux stared at him. Finn paused, and then hastily removed his hand. He cleared his throat. “Sorry. Nice one.”  
Hux allowed a slight smirk before turning back to the windows. “On to the next.”   
The _Nexilis_ and _Bellator_ were engaged in fierce combat with the _Mydano._ The Guavian convoy had effectively driven them apart, leaving them isolated and vulnerable.  
Through the muted static of the comm lines, Bala-Tik asked, _“Mydano_ to _Perpetua_. Care to jump in and finish off one of these?”  
“Our squadrons are moving in now. Converge your forces on the _Bellator,”_ Hux said.   
“Aye, General Hux.” The crimson dreadnought slowly began to turn as it drew in towards the nearest destroyer _._   
No sooner had the line to the _Mydano_ closed than Bala-Tik’s voice was replaced with Poe’s. _“Perpetua,_ this is Black Leader. Who’s next?”  
“The _Nexilis,”_ Hux answered. “Concentrate fire on their weapons systems.”   
Black Squadron raced past the _Perpetua,_ followed by Gold and Red. They broke off as they neared the _Nexilis_ and opened fire, disabling the surface cannons with a coordination that even Hux had to admit was impressive.   
The destroyer’s shields were already severely compromised by the time the _Perpetua_ brought it within firing range. It took only a few plasma rounds before the windows of the bridge blew out in a convulsion of flame. The detonation tore through the rest of the ship, and the _Nexilis_ became nothing more than a cloud of debris.  
Through the wreckage, Hux caught sight of the _Bellator_ —or what was left of it. The _Mydano_ was sailing between two halves of the destroyer, appearing mostly unscathed. Ahead of them loomed the _Finalizer,_ now unguarded.   
The _Perpetua_ and the _Mydano_ swept forward until the nose of the destroyer was directly between them. For a moment, Hux was unable to stop himself from remembering the _Finalizer’s_ bridge. He could still recall every detail of its interior—every moment he’d spent watching a battle unfold through its windows—but he found that he could not picture himself there now.   
He said sharply, “Open fire on the _Finalizer_ as soon as it’s in range.”  
“Wait.”  
Hux spun to see Leia standing at the entrance to the bridge. “We’re not here to wipe out their ships,” she said. “We’re here to end the First Order.”  
As Leia came forward to stand beside him, Hux fought the nearly overwhelming impulse to ask of Luke’s fate, desperate to know if she had sensed anything of Abalin. But he could see the steel in her eyes, her focus on the battle and nothing else. He followed her gaze through the window, looking onto the bow of the lead destroyer.   
“Hail the _Finalizer,”_ Leia ordered.   
“Wait, what?” Finn protested. “We got them right where we want them. What happens if we miss this chance?”  
Hux added, “I’m not certain it’s worth losing our current advantage for a conversation with Sindian—”  
Leia held up a hand to silence them both. To Connix, she said, “Do it.”   
Connix nodded and obeyed. A tense moment passed as the _Perpetua_ faced down the _Finalizer_. Then, from a haze of static, an image of Sindian coalesced at the front of the bridge.   
Leia turned to face her squarely and stated, “Grand Vizier Sindian, your command division has been overpowered and your fleet is compromised. Order a ceasefire, and the Resistance will accept your surrender on behalf of the New Republic.”   
Sindian’s expression was rigid. “You think you’ve won?” she hissed. “You and your pitiful rebellion will never defeat the First Order.”  
“No more games,” Leia snapped. “Surrender. Let this war end.”  
Sindian’s composure seemed to falter. Her eyes flickered past Leia and with barely contained panic, she blurted out, “Brendol.”   
Hux stepped up beside Leia. “Carise,” he returned coolly. “I’m surprised to see you alive. It’s not like the Supreme Leader to be so forgiving of incompetence.”  
“Think about what you’re doing,” Sindian said with a tremor in her voice. “This is _your_ fleet you’re destroying—and for what? The Resistance? You would throw away everything you’ve worked for—everything your father built—just for them? Is this truly where your loyalties lie?”   
“What would you know about loyalty?” he snarled. “You’ve never served anything but your own self-interest. You would renounce the First Order now if it would save your own skin. But unlike you, I did find something worth my loyalty.” He drew a breath and straightened before he went on. “Your time is limited, Grand Vizier. I suggest you consider General Organa’s rather merciful conditions. Unless, of course, the Supreme Leader has not afforded you the luxury of surrender.” Hux paused, studying her closely. “I expect he hasn’t.”  
Finally, her mask of calm shattered. “You’re a traitor,” she spat. “You’re nothing but a traitor to your people and to the Empire.”  
Hux flashed a razor-thin smile. “Apparently,” he said. “Goodbye, Carise.”  
Sindian bit out a blistering curse and cut the transmission. Hux turned and found Leia scrutinizing him. Mildly, he said, “You’ll want to start firing before she does.”  
Leia looked to Connix. “All fire on the lead destroyer,” she commanded.   
The view through the windows went white with cannon fire. With the civilian fleet holding the remaining First Order support vessels at bay, the X-wing squadrons quickly dispatched the ion cannons and then the shield generators. The faint shimmer of blue that marked the edges of the destroyer’s energy field dissipated with a weak flicker. The moment it was gone, massive divots appeared on the _Finalizer’s_ bow as the _Perpetua’s_ cannon rounds pierced the ship’s surface. The _Perpetua_ rocked as it was struck with the ensuing fusillade, but the last of the destroyer’s weapons were quickly obliterated under the barrage from both sides.  
Just as the _Perpetua_ and the _Mydano_ cleared the length of the destroyer, a blinding flash split the mangled hull. The reactor core, the heart of the ship, had ruptured. A globe of blazing, candescent white bloomed from the exposed core. For a fraction of a second, it seemed frozen. Then the sphere engulfed the destroyer, and the whole of the ship was consumed by flame.   
Hux looked on as the _Finalizer_ vanished. Dimly, he was aware of the celebration erupting around him as the bridge filled with whistling and joyful cheers. He stood in silence, his eyes fixed through the window. The Dinraal Nebula had gone still. The only lingering evidence of the First Order command fleet was rubble left among the swirls of red light and ash.


	63. Chapter 63

The crystals here were almost entirely black. Rey’s saber illuminated their path, but it was scarcely enough to fend off the encroaching shadows.  
Rey held the Light around her like a shield, keeping her eyes trained forward. She had no idea how long they had been walking when she heard Abalin slow to a stop behind her.  
“Rey,” he said softly.  
Focused on navigating the labyrinthine tunnel, she didn’t pause to look back at him. “We have to be getting close,” she called over her shoulder.  
Abalin didn’t reply. Rey turned just in time to see his legs buckle under him.   
“Abalin,” she gasped. Letting her lightsaber fall to the ground, she dropped to a crouch by his side. “Abalin, please. Get up.” She shook him. “You have to get up.”  
There was no response. Desperately, she pressed her hand to his temple, trying to drag him back to consciousness. But his energy in the Force was obscured. When Rey fought Mihalis, she had sensed a darkness festering throughout his whole being. Now she found the same blackness spreading through Abalin’s mind.   
Rey felt a stab of fear as the realization set in: Snoke’s power had overcome him. He would not be able to face Snoke with her.   
Slowly, an idea began to take shape. If she could weaken Snoke enough, Abalin might be able to fight back. She had no way to be sure whether it would work. But she knew she couldn’t stop here.   
She carefully lowered Abalin’s head to the ground. _“Follow me,”_ she whispered, pressing her words deep into his mind. She hoped fervently that he could hear her, that she wasn’t too late already. Grabbing her saber hilt from where it had fallen, she stood and strode deeper into the cave.   
Rey sensed Snoke’s presence closing in around her, watching but unseen. When he spoke, the sound seemed to emanate from every crack and crevice of the dying crystals.   
_What will you do now, brave young Rey?  
_ Without Mihalis’s voice masking it, Snoke’s words were hardly more than a breath of wind. Rey steadied herself, gripping the saber more tightly in her hand.  
 _I had feared that you would be the one to lead the uprising of the Jedi,_ Snoke continued. _But I need not have worried. Even Luke Skywalker saw that you could never be taught. That you are nothing.  
_ Rey redoubled her focus on the shield of Light around her. She knew if she gave Snoke the slightest opportunity, he would destroy her.   
“Every last one of your defenses has failed,” Rey said, lifting her chin. “It’s over.”  
 _Such bravery in you. You would have made a far better apprentice than Ben Solo. Look how weak he turned out to be. The last of the Skywalkers, broken and beaten.  
_ In front of her, she could see that the tunnel opened outward. She fixed her eyes ahead, determinedly ignoring the shadows that flickered at the edges of her vision.  
 _And what of you, Rey? Do you truly believe that you can defeat me alone?  
_ Rey spoke with all the courage she could summon. “I’m not alone.”  
She sensed Snoke’s anger deepening as she steadfastly held his presence at bay. _When you have been destroyed,_ Snoke’s voice hissed, _your Light will sustain me for millennia.  
_ She gave a choked yell as Snoke clawed viciously into her mind. The suddenness of the assault forced her to her knees. She scrambled to restore her defenses and dragged herself to her feet, then stumbled the last few steps to the deepest chamber of the cavern.   
The space was immense, with a column of translucent stone vaulting from the floor to the ceiling. Within the pillar, a shifting, muted luminescence pulsated. This was the nexus of Snoke’s power, she realized, the epicenter of his very existence.  
She lifted her hand, shaking with the effort of staving off Snoke’s attack. Then she pressed her palm to the pillar and closed her eyes.   
Snoke’s presence recoiled from her, rabid with fury. Rey managed to pin him in place as she poured forth all the Light she could reach, fighting to subdue him. He writhed in pain, sending shockwaves through the Force as he struggled to escape. Before long, Rey’s tenuous grasp on Snoke began to slip.  
Then, a whisper: _Rey.  
_ She recognized the voice. It was the same voice she had heard on the winds of Ahch-To, leading her through the temples to the holocron. The same voice that had welcomed her to Aul-Zhana. The one that had guided her as a child on Jakku, that had been with her whenever she thought she was alone, that had always shown her a path forward. It was the voice of the Force itself.   
She reached for the Light beckoning to her from within the kyber crystals, a last store of energy that they had hidden from Snoke for centuries. Their essence filled Rey until she could no longer tell where her own will ended and the pure power of the Force began.  
When she had drawn all the Light that the crystals could offer, she turned it against Snoke.  
He gave an unearthly scream that knifed through Rey’s core. His attempts to evade her intensified. But still he could not break free, and she could not completely immobilize him. She grappled for a final reserve of strength to overpower him, but found none. They were trapped in a deadlock.  
A new presence joined her—not the Light, nor the darkness of Snoke, but something else entirely. It was a formidable energy, fiercely defiant and unmistakable.   
Rey’s eyes flew open. Abalin stood beside her, lightning poised around his wrists.   
Her heart leapt into her throat. Her efforts to suppress Snoke must have given Abalin a chance to free himself from Snoke’s hold. She felt the steel of Abalin’s resolve, his single-minded determination to bring an end to all of this. The lightning sparked and flared as it flowed around him, more intense than Rey had ever seen. Rey gave a final push against Snoke, paralyzing him for one last moment as Abalin cast his hands forward.   
Rey wrenched herself free of Snoke’s consciousness just as the lightning launched from Abalin’s fingertips. It surged high above them, striking the center of the pillar. Electricity tore through the length of the column, then burst outward through the ceiling and floor. The excruciating sound of Snoke’s pain was amplified through each of the destabilizing crystals.   
Abalin channeled the lightning onward until a rift cracked through the heart of the kyber. The crystals surrounding the column began to splinter and burst. Rey shielded her face as white-hot fragments rained down on them.   
Finally, the lightning wavered and died away. Abalin dropped to one knee. The ground quaked beneath Rey as she ran to him, dodging chunks of rock as they plummeted from the ceiling.  
“Abalin, we need to go,” she shouted. “Now!”  
She hauled Abalin to his feet and together they raced back the way they had come, through the twisting passageway. Abalin’s lightning streaked along beside them, leaping between the seams of kyber. The crystals became blindingly bright and then shattered, sending wide fractures radiating through the walls.   
They were close enough to the entrance to see daylight, but the ceiling threatened to collapse in on them before they could escape. Rey threw her hand forward and hurled a pulse of Force energy ahead of them, leaving just enough of an opening in the debris for her and Abalin to reach the other side.


	64. Chapter 64

Abalin woke with a gasp. He pushed himself upright, testing his exhausted muscles, and rose to his feet. Stumbling slightly, he turned towards the cavern.  
The entrance was entirely obscured under a colossal tumble of rock. As he regarded the collapsed tunnel, he realized how clearly he could see it; the ominous haze that cloaked the surface of the planet had begun to lift. Slivers of sun pierced through the overcast skies, adding warmth to the bleak landscape.  
A burst of apprehension shot through him. Hesitantly, he closed his eyes and listened.  
At first, he surveyed his own mind, studying the scars that had been wrenched open when Snoke finally wore through his defenses. But Abalin could find no trace of him now. The presence that had seemed certain to eclipse Abalin’s own was gone.   
He searched outward, extending his energy beyond himself.   
Stillness. Peace.  
Balance.  
Snoke had corrupted the Light and Dark for so long that Abalin couldn’t remember the Force without his influence. But in its absence, the energies of the galaxy had already started to heal. Abalin had never felt such calm before.   
Then, so near that it startled him, he sensed a glimmer of Light.  
“Rey,” he breathed.  
Abalin found her quickly among the rubble and knelt beside her. “Are you all right?”  
She looked up at him and gave a weak smile. “Abalin,” she said hoarsely. “We did it.”   
Abalin managed a choked laugh. “We did it.”  
She threw her arms around him, hugging him with what little strength she had left. He returned the embrace, stunned and grateful.  
After a moment, Abalin drew back and unclipped Luke’s saber hilt from his belt. He stared at it in his palm until Rey wrapped her fingers around his. Her smile was tinged with sadness as he met her gaze. She closed her eyes, and Abalin felt her reaching out to the Force, past him, into the currents of Light that were now free from Snoke.  
“Thank you,” Rey whispered.  
She opened her eyes and turned back to Abalin. Behind them, the rockfall sealing off the cave’s entrance was quiet and still. Ahead, through the clearing fog, the  _ Millennium Falcon _ awaited them.


	65. Chapter 65

In the days following the Battle of the Dinraal Nebula, with the majority of the fleet destroyed and most of the high command killed, the First Order collapsed. Surviving officers were captured on previously occupied planets from the Core to the Outer Rim. Among the worlds reclaimed was Arkanis, and a treaty conference was scheduled to take place in the capital city of Elizeth in a few months’ time.  
The sun was setting on Akroma, casting long shadows on what had become a decidedly raucous base. After the battle, much of the civilian fleet gathered at Dinraal had returned here with the Resistance. Hux had done his best to avoid the crowds, unable to tolerate the celebratory mood. Like the previous several nights, he found himself on the interlinking walkways above the compound.   
He had been alone for a long while when Leia finally caught up to him. She said nothing as she leaned against the rail beside him. Her eyes were on the horizon, searching it intently just as he had been for hours. Slowly, Hux followed her gaze. The last light of day had just begun to disappear behind the trees, and still the sky showed no hint of an approaching ship.   
The silence lingered between them until Leia said, “We just got word from Elizeth. Major Chen Olmyn has formally surrendered and issued a total ceasefire.”  
Olmyn. Hux had wondered if the commanding officer of the _Maelstrom_ had survived the battle. Evidently he had, but at the cost of bearing the full consequences of its loss. Hux felt a slight twinge of pity, knowing that of everyone in the First Order command, Olmyn should not have been the one to shoulder the responsibility for the war’s outcome.   
Quietly, Hux said, “If command has fallen to Olmyn, Snoke must surely be dead.”  
Leia gave him a sympathetic smile. “Be patient,” she said. “They’ll be back soon.”  
He remained unsettled. “It’s been weeks.”  
“They’ve gone a long way. But they know where to find us. Now, come on. Help me prepare for this treaty conference, since it seems safe to assume the New Republic isn’t going to invite you.”  
She beckoned him to follow, and with one last glance at the empty sky, they made their way back inside the base.

  
  
  


***

  
  
  


Days passed. As much as possible, Hux kept busy by following every scrap of news from what had been First Order-controlled worlds. No evidence had emerged that Snoke was still alive. But there was no confirmation that he was dead, either. If Leia ever had a moment of doubt, she hid it well.  
Hux was in the command center when he finally heard it: the unmistakable guttering engine of a Corellian freighter.  
In an instant, Hux was on his feet and making for the airfield. He got there just as the _Falcon_ touched down.  
A throng of onlookers had already gathered to meet it. The causeway dropped, and Rey was the first to come into view. Finn and Poe broke from the crowd, sprinting past Hux and across the landing field to draw her into a bone-crushing embrace.   
Hux remained frozen in place until Abalin stepped out behind Rey.   
At a dead run, Hux closed the distance between them. He got to the ramp just as Abalin set foot on the ground. Hux threw his arms around Abalin, and without waiting for him to say a word, instinctively reached out to Abalin in his mind. The barrier that had closed off their bond gave way, and all at once the last few weeks of worry and fear were swept away in the overwhelming rush of Abalin’s thoughts. Abalin breathed a laugh and caught Hux in a dizzying kiss.  
When Abalin finally spoke, his voice was thick. “Snoke is dead.”   
Hux pushed the hair back from Abalin’s face, their foreheads resting against one another. “It’s over.” Then, before he could stop to think, he heard himself say, “I love you.”  
Abalin drew his arms tighter around Hux. “I love you,” he whispered, and buried his face against Hux’s neck.   
Something over Hux’s shoulder caught Abalin’s attention. Hux turned and found himself face to face with Leia. He stepped aside.   
For a moment, Leia just held Abalin’s eyes. Abalin started, hesitantly, “Mother...I’m so sorry. Luke—”  
“It’s all right,” she cut him off. “It wasn’t your fault. He knew what had to be done.” Leia regarded Abalin pensively before her face broke out into a warm smile. She hugged him and murmured, “I always knew you’d come home.”   
As they parted, Rey appeared in a blur, flinging her arms around Hux’s neck. He gave a surprised laugh. Poe and Finn were behind her, congratulating Abalin and welcoming him back. Hux saw Rey exchange a smile with Abalin before Abalin took Hux’s hand, and they were swept back towards the compound by the cheering crowd.


	66. Chapter 66

It was one of the rare days when the endless rain on Arkanis had turned to snow, laying a thick blanket across the estate of Wreavenwood. Hux stood on the veranda overlooking the grounds, which had become a makeshift shipyard for the Resistance. The _Millennium Falcon,_ a shuttle from the _Perpetua,_ and several X-wings sat at the edge of the forest, dusted in white.  
With the treaty signed in the great halls of Elizeth, the First Order was officially dismantled. Though the state of the galaxy was far from settled, the war was finally over. Hux knew he ought to be relieved, but instead he was restless, needled by an intrusive sense of discontent. The feeling persisted despite his best efforts to ignore it in favor of a succession of cigarettes.  
Earlier, he had returned to his father’s study, half-hoping for some measure of closure that had not come. It was in the same state of disarray as they had found it on their last visit, yet it felt somehow emptier. In the silence of the room, Hux could almost hear his father’s voice say that dying with the First Order would have been preferable to being reduced to this: directionless, adrift.   
The door behind him opened and Leia stepped out. “Mind if I join you?” she asked.  
“Please.” He slid open the silver cover of his cigarette case and held it out.   
She selected a cigarette and accepted the lighter he proffered her. “I could probably get you some sort of commendation for what you did for us at Dinraal,” Leia said after a long pull. “A medal to add to your collection.”  
“I would truly rather you didn’t,” he said dryly.  
Leia chuckled before her expression grew softer. “I do want to thank you, Brendol. We couldn’t have won without you. All of us appreciate it. Even if you weren’t necessarily doing it for the Resistance.”  
Hux failed to offer a reply, but Leia didn’t seem to need one. “I got an invitation,” she continued, exhaling smoke. “To Coruscant. Apparently, what’s left of the Senate wants my help to rebuild.”  
“They asked for _your_ help?” He arched a brow. “They must be quite desperate, then.”  
Leia gave a short laugh. “They just want me to do the hard work of getting every world aligned to the Republic again.” She paused. “I don’t think they’re going to like what I have to say to that.”  
Hux glanced sideways at her. “And what do you have to say?”  
She pondered for a moment, absently tapping ash onto the railing. “What the galaxy needs isn’t just a rehash of the last Republic. We’ve already seen how that plays out. As much as I hate to say it, you were onto something by building up the independence of the smaller worlds outside the Core. I just think there’s a way to do that without the threat of a full-scale invasion.”  
“What would you propose?”  
“I’m not sure yet. It will be...experimental. Something no one has seen before.”   
“That’s a monumental task.”  
“It is. Which brings me to what I’ve been meaning to ask you.” She turned to face him squarely. “I’m going to need someone I can trust to help me with all of this. Someone who won’t get caught up in the politics of it all, someone who can see things that I might miss.”   
With a note of disbelief, he said, “And you want me to do it.”  
“Unless you have another recommendation.” Leia smirked at his expression before continuing, nonchalantly, “You would be kept very busy. I’m not sure what your official title would be, but we can hammer out the details as we go.”  
“Grand Vizier would do well, if that’s an option.”  
“Brendol, I’m serious.”  
Hux was surprised by the sincerity in her gaze. Slowly, he started, “I’m not certain my presence would be well received in the Senate.”  
“It won’t be the Senate. It will be whatever we make it.”  
Hux was silent. Leia seemed to sense his discomfort, so she returned her attention to the treeline in the distance. “It’s not going to be easy. But you’re one of the most brilliant strategists I’ve ever known, so I expect you to make short work of it.” She smiled at him. “So. What do you say?”  
He finally managed to meet Leia’s eyes. “I would be honored.”  
  
  
  


***  
  
  
  


“There’s no way. It would never work.”  
“It _absolutely_ would.”  
“No way, Rey. You’ll never get a Veragi transceiver installed without rerouting the whole damn pulse array. Abalin, back me up.”  
The four of them—Poe, Rey, Finn, and Abalin—were standing outside in the falling snow, their necks craned to peer up at the underbelly of the _Falcon_. Rey and Abalin had been inside the ship, repairing an assortment of long-ignored malfunctions, when Poe and Finn had called them down. They had started to speculate about future improvements, which quickly led to Poe and Rey’s disagreement.  
Abalin contemplated for several moments, then said, somewhat reluctantly, “I don’t think it would work.”  
Poe gave a shout of triumph, sparking an outraged rebuttal from Rey. They were still talking over each other when Finn interrupted. “I thought we were taking a walk before this all turns back into mud,” he complained. “I didn’t come out here so you could stand around arguing about Veragi…whatevers.”  
“Transceivers, babe,” Poe said, brushing snow from Finn’s hair. “And it’s not an argument. Just, you know, a spirited debate.”  
“That you are losing,” Rey supplied.  
“I’m telling you—”  
“That you have no idea how to route a pulse array. I got it.”   
Finn continued along their path, following the tree-lined boundary of the estate. “I’m gonna keep walking now,” he announced. Poe ran after him, catching him in an embrace. Finn rolled his eyes but allowed a smile as Poe pressed an impish kiss to Finn’s mouth. They began to walk again, their hands linked.  
“Rey, Abalin, come with us,” Finn said. “The _Falcon_ will still be broken tomorrow.”  
Rey’s face split into a grin as she followed after them, but Abalin lingered behind. “You go ahead,” he said when Rey glanced back at him.  
“Don’t you want to walk with us?”  
“I’ll go back inside.”  
She nodded, and he started towards the house. He had only gotten a few steps when she called after him, “Abalin, wait. Before you go.”  
He turned back to see Rey traipsing through the snow to catch up to him. She rummaged through an inner pocket of her jacket, then held out a cupped hand towards him. “I have something for you.”  
“What is it?” he asked warily.  
She opened her fingers. On her palm lay a clear, fractured crystal—the one from Abalin’s original lightsaber.   
“I’ve been meditating with it,” she said, watching his expression. “Listen.”   
Abalin glanced between her and the crystal as she placed it in his hand. He hesitated, then closed his eyes and did as she said, concentrating on the stone. It was quiet at first, nothing more than a weight in his palm. He went deeper, touching the core of it through the Force.  
There, a flicker.   
Abalin’s eyes flew open. The crystal had started to emit a soft white glow. Stunned, he looked to Rey, who was beaming. “How did you…?”  
“It’s held on,” she said. “Do you think if we took it to Aul-Zhana, you could restore it and make a new lightsaber?”  
He didn’t answer immediately, turning the crystal over in his hand. “Maybe,” he agreed.   
“And...while we’re there,” Rey added softly, “we could find a place to leave Luke’s saber. Have a proper goodbye.”  
Abalin gave a gentle smile. “I’d like that.”   
  
  
  


***  
  
  


Hux found Abalin on the sofa in the common room, a fire in the hearth. Abalin was inspecting something and didn’t notice Hux’s arrival until he sat beside him and put an arm around Abalin’s shoulders.   
“What is that?” Hux asked, indicating the object in Abalin’s hand.   
“My kyber crystal,” Abalin murmured. “Rey revived it.”   
As Abalin’s eyes traced over the stone, Hux felt secondhand the sense of comfort he drew from it. Abalin glanced up at him, a faint flush rising in his cheeks before he closed his hand around the crystal and rested his head on Hux’s shoulder.   
For a while, Hux was quiet, absentmindedly trailing his hand through Abalin’s hair as he watched the flames cast flickering light through the room. Finally, he said, “Your mother’s offered me a job.”  
“What?”  
“I’m to go with her to Coruscant.”  
Abalin looked slightly alarmed. He studied Hux’s face, as if uncertain whether Hux was serious. Realizing he was, Abalin asked, “Are you going to do it?”  
“I’m not entirely sure I have a choice in the matter,” Hux admitted. “But I’m glad to accept.”  
Abalin’s fingers slipped through Hux’s. “You’re not leaving soon, are you?”   
Hux kissed Abalin’s temple. “Not for a long while.”  
Abalin nodded, closing his eyes as he leaned against Hux. Little by little, Abalin’s thoughts settled and calmed as he began to drift to sleep.   
Hux smiled, pulling Abalin closer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that is a WRAP! 
> 
> After nearly five years of planning, writing, and editing, The Shadow Ends is complete. 
> 
> To everyone that dedicated their time to reading this, we appreciate you so much. We spent so long in coffee shops (and libraries and parks, and on planes, and a couple trains, and our couch at home) putting our energy into this story. It is amazing to be able to finally share it with the world.
> 
> We love to hear from you and will respond to every comment or message we get! There may be some more commissioned art in the future, which we're very excited about. We also have some behind-the-scenes extras that we'll be posting in the next few days. Keep an eye on [our Tumblr](https://mysticaloyster.tumblr.com/) for that content.
> 
> Thank you again for reading, for leaving kudos, for commenting. It's been a joy sharing Hux and Abalin's journey with all of you.
> 
> Cheers,  
> Z & L


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